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Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

news.mit.edu

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Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#81

Post by pas »

BurningFrog wrote: post #49
DrBazza wrote: post #21

If it's periodic, it's something orbiting something. If it's powerful enough to be seen 500 million ly away, one of the two orbiting objects is going to be a black hole.

Or one thing rotating. You can imagine other cyclical processes, but I don't know any are realistic.

Variable stars, something involving a cyclic phase transition (from silent to active and back). Something like the Type Ia supernova, where the dense white dwarf siphons off mass from its companion until it reaches the Chandrasekhar limit and bang.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#82

Post by 0ld »

tlow wrote: post #79
antepodius wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My guess is a nanotech slug impacting earth and turning us into grey goo/a matrioshka brain factory.

Can you say more about these nanotech slugs please?

I believe they are referencing James S. A. Corey The Expanse [0] series

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Expanse_(novel_series)

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#83

Post by libraryatnight »

odyssey7 wrote: post #64
dreamcompiler wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a time when people thought a ball of fire moving across the sky every day must be alive. The universe is full of strange phenomena perfectly explainable by physics. This is no different.

Eventually physicists are going to end up trying to explain signs of intelligent life as new Physics and calibrate their models according to it. "Greetings from ___." "Oh, hello... uhh, so those signals were your house and not a trefoil of two black holes and a quasar?

This is what I was just thinking. I personally hope if it does happen the reveal has excellent comedic timing.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#84

Post by mturmon »

jrichardshaw wrote: post #54

One of paper authors here. I'll try and answer some of the questions in the comments. It seems like so long ago the paper actually went public onto the arXiv, but I guess the press embargo just ended.

Could you say something about how you are now, or might later, coordinate fast follow up observations in other wavelengths or with other instruments?

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#85

Post by irthomasthomas »

jrichardshaw wrote: post #54

One of paper authors here. I'll try and answer some of the questions in the comments. It seems like so long ago the paper actually went public onto the arXiv, but I guess the press embargo just ended.

Assuming that it is aliens, for a moment, we can not know if these aliens are friendly or hostile, right? So, given that there is a 50/50 chance of them being hostile, and given their awesome show of strength, the precautionary principal dictates that we not advertise our presence too loudly.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#86

Post by sergeykish »

zoomablemind wrote: post #17
abc_lisper wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until one day when it becomes true ..

We should beam back our commercials at them... they may just change their mind and switch to ads-free alternative.

Oh no, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindsight_(Watts_novel)

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#87

Post by beamatronic »

lumost wrote: post #46
beamatronic wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s why somebody needs to send out a sequence of prime numbers

What protocol do you use to represent the sequence? Bytes, Morse, Amplitude modulation, frequency modulation? All of these combinations may appear random to one without the right codec.

I wonder if this could be accomplished with a train of satellites. All in the same orbit. Just spaced out like this:

xx xxx xxxxx xxxxxxx

So they just go around and around, including the light, from the point of view of a far away perspective

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#89

Post by magneticnorth »

Earth has had life for more maybe as long as 4 billion years, and in all that time there has been less than 200 years when a species had the intelligence, the motivation, and the technological advancement to send communications into space.

I know the odds of this being life are (literally) astronomically low, but every time I hear news like this, I can't help hoping there's another species out there that found the will & the way to reach out.

Re: Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

#90

Post by api »

antepodius wrote: post #76
plutonorm wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great to hear! If some credible evidence of aliens did appear, where do you think it would come from? Tabby's Star like data? atmospheric spectra? FRB's? other? Would absolutely love to hear your thoughts :)

My guess is a nanotech slug impacting earth and turning us into grey goo/a matrioshka brain factory.

That already happened. Living cells are nanotechnology. Something loaded with them impacted billions of years ago, and we're currently working on AI and rockets.
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