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Powerful Radio Signal from Deep Space
- dmitripopov 7y agoJust imagine one day a true alien signal comes ringing, and what the public reaction would be? "Yeah, right. Again."
- jonny383 7y agoI guess it would depend how compelling the signal was. If it's just rogue radio waves with seemingly intelligent structure that the average person cannot understand, then the reaction would likely be "Yeah, right. Again". If it's some kind of encoded message containing information that can be decoded and verified by scientific communicators, perhaps not.
- techopoly 7y agoThat's the problem, isn't it? How can we decode a theoretical alien transmission without transposing our own sense of meaning onto it? It's like the X-Files episodes where they find the aliens are using encodings that were designed in modern history by humans. Binary (as if there is one standard binary), bar codes... These scenes are supposed to be huge revelations, but for any sort of programmer or engineer, they seem silly. Which wouldn't be so if they made a point about how the aliens are intentionally using our encoding systems, but that's not how it's presented. Not hating on the X-Files though, that show is awesome.
- swsieber 7y agoIf I were in charge of broadcasting a communication signal into space, I'd make it a very obviously square wave, or something else that doesn't usually occur on its own. So it really depends on if the signal was meant to be seen as a discovery mechanism.
- Koshkin 7y agoA hostile invasion that follows will be the ultimate proof.
- martin_a 7y agoDon't worry, it will most probably be limited to the USA. Aliens always land there.
- richthegeek 7y agoUsually they take a quick detour to destroy Big Ben and the great wall of China first, but after that it's straight to a plucky American kid's backyard.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- agoodthrowaway 7y agoOne thing that I wonder is whether we could ever identify an alien communication signal as an alien signal is likely to be much more advanced. In that scenario, the alien civilization is likely to be able to send their signal at the Shannon limit. Additionally an advanced civilization is likely to be sending signals optically instead of over radio waves. But even if we assume radio waves, Shannon says that the you can send the most information when using a random code. As you approach the Shannon limit the signal becomes more noise-like as the encoding tends towards random. So it’s entirely possible an alien signal is likely to look like pure noise to us and hence we may miss a true alien signal.
- dvh 7y agoIt's too short for communication. I think it's burst of particles that are released when spaceship goes out of warp. https://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come-with-a-killer-downside/ https://www.universetoday.com/93882/warp-drives-may-come-wit... 16 day regular cycle is because it's regular transfer between two planets. Other FRBs are random because they are just random ships on random research routes.
- PappaPatat 7y agoI am going to frame your answer.
- gchokov 7y agoLove your comment. Sudden daydreaming for me.
- saber6 7y agoI WANT TO BELIEVE. :D
- syshum 7y agoOr they are heading straight for us but can only stay in warp for 16 days at a time.
- yumraj 7y ago
- lovelearning 7y agoMore like "powerful radio emissions from deep space". The paper doesn't use the term "signal" at all, and a website dedicated to science probably shouldn't have either (although it did help bait my click).
- thdrdt 7y agoI think the click-bait title is the reason why most comments here are about aliens. Also because it has a set interval. People like to assume there is some intelligent life form that trigger the events. But on our own planet we have geysers that erupt at set intervals. All without the help of an intelligent life form. So I think it's more likely that it's a natural phenomena.
- bitminer 7y agoFRBs are chirps. Something like a "signal". Much more signally than the hiss from stars and galaxies.
- runawaybottle 7y agoWhat could create a natural radio signal in space? Edit: I should have done some basic googling, turns out a few things: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_radio_source https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_radio_source
- magduf 7y agoMagnetars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar
- sizzzzlerz 7y agoThe real question you should be asking is what doesn't. Radio signals are generated in many ways at frequencies up and down the spectrum.
- pledess 7y agoAlternate explanation: there really aren't 12 silent days. They have (in effect) a directional antenna that happens to be aimed at us on the 4 other days. When it's not aimed at us, the signal is way below what https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/en/effelsberg https://www.mpifr-bonn.mpg.de/en/effelsberg can detect.
- HoustonRefugee 7y agoIntergalactic numbers station!
- magduf 7y agoDidn't we see a movie about this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film)
- Angostura 7y ago> an alien signal is likely to be much more advanced. ... and therefore they will probably think to themselves 'maybe we shouldn't talk too fast and say things as simply as possible... if we want to increase the likelihood of being understood'.
- sixdimensional 7y agoSci fi daydream here. What would it take for us to actually try to make such a signal ourselves in space? Really huge explosions? I suppose one weird way to see if they could be alien signals is see if we can imitate them. Of course, that would be no guarantee that we aren’t just making bird calls imitating the sounds of car alarms (or other birds for that matter). But, I mean, if we can detect these signals, if we could generate one, maybe some other civilization would too. And if we proved that any civilization of a certain state could use the same technique, it would at least lend more probability to the possibility that these are something not natural phenomena. And who knows, when the alien armada invasion force shows up, you’d know for sure it worked! Ah, such reckless abandon.
- sliken 7y agoWell 1 watt across 1 Mhz for 1 second isn't a particularly power signal. But 1 watt across 1 hz for 1 ns is a significantly more power signal that will propagate much better. In fact it's about 1e+15 times easier to detect. Hrm, maybe it's more like log(1e+15), but in any case it's quite helpful. If we can get space based manufacturing working well we could start making solar powered lasers that orbit the sun. Ideally with a bot that self replicates. Say relatively small panels like 2 meters by 2 meters = 5444 watts (near earth orbit). Assume a 20% conversion ratio and some kind of energy storage. Maybe operate for a 1 ns per 10 minutes on a very narrow frequency with a particular target in mind. Time them all to transmit precisely so that the wave front reaches the target at precisely the same time. 5444 * 10 = 54,444 watt minutes * 20% conversion = 10,888 watt minutes. Released in 1ns would be as bright as 653,280,000,000,000 watts steady state. Obviously there are efficiencies and physical limits to consider. Although maybe not as much as you might think. For instance the worlds brightest laser is already 1 billion times brighter than the surface of the sun. Maybe settle for 1,000 times dimmer, but 1 million of them. Make a few 1000 or a few million and you could easily outshine the sun for 1ns in a particularly narrow frequency. Ideally a frequency with minimum background noise and minimal absorption in the nearby interstellar mediums. The system could also act as a defense system. Although given the solar -> energy storage -> laser inefficiencies not sure if the single frequency of the laser would be more effective than just a mirror. Maybe count up the first 16 primes repeatedly to rule out any natural causes. The three body problem uses some implausibly small amount of energy to get the sun to resonate in a way detectable from many light years away. Not sure that could work, but maybe a million sats could reinforce a natural resonance in the sun to accomplish similar. That would only be worth it if the sun acted like amplifier and not sure that's feasible.
- mothsonasloth 7y agoJust think, whether this is an alien device or a quasar / celestial body outputting this energy. It is a truly terrifying level of radiation. I wouldn't like to be a planet in a solar system near the origin of those bursts.