A Sunday and I will be brief and to the point…..because I have some more important stuff to do….like a game of Dominoes with my granddaughter….then a game of chess if she is up to it……
Remember the blockbuster film, ET? The main character was determined to “phone home”…..is it far fetched? Or could there be something to this “phone home” scenario?
I am old enough that I can remember when S.E.T.I. went batcrap crazy when they got what they hoped was a signal from space……sadly it has never repeated itself……..or has it?
Researchers just announced the discovery of radio signals from beyond our galaxy that are behaving in strange ways. Fast radio bursts—or FRBs—are very rare, very quick blasts of radio waves originating billions of light years away, Popular Science explains. It’s unclear where exactly in the universe they’re coming from and what’s causing them. Since the first one was discovered in 2007, scientists have found only 17 total, and none of them ever repeat, the Verge reports. At least that’s what everyone thought. According to a paper published this week in Nature, researchers at Cornell University have found evidence of FRBs that do just that.
Scientists used to think FRBs were caused by “cataclysmic events,” such as neutron stars colliding with each other and exploding. Repeating FRBs means that can’t be the case. “This research shows for the first time that there can be multiple FRBs from the same place in the sky,” researcher Shami Chatterjee says in a press release. “Whatever produces the FRB can’t be destroyed by the burst, because otherwise, what would produce the next pulse?” And the mystery deepens: “We’re showing that whatever battery drives FRBs, it can recharge in minutes,” astronomy professor James Cordes says. “The energy of the event becomes very problematic.” Researchers hope to next pinpoint where the FRBs are coming from in order to figure out what they’re coming from, and they’ll be helped by three massive radio telescopes that start operating next year. (Speaking of space mysteries: “Alien megastructures” have scientists baffled.)
Is someone phoning home?
Your thoughts would be appreciated.
As Spock would say “Fascinating”!
Thanx for the visit and the comment…..hope to see you often….live long and prosper….chuq
It would be great to know for sure one day, but as Stephen Hawking says, how do we know they are peaceful? It didn’t work out very well for the American Indians.
Exactly…..we are inviting disaster….chuq
That’s the big question – Are we or not?
They may think so…..
Intriguing puzzle, to be sure; from what I know of physics, it could very well be some sort of communication device, but, we actually know so little of what happens ‘out there’, it’s hard to speculate. The laws under which we operate here, as Einstein pointed out, may only be a local phenomenon, and what we are observing may not be what we think we see….
If we live long enough, we might go find out, but, odds aren’t looking too good for that….
gigoid, the dubious
I am not thrill that we keep asking them to visit….are we nuts? chuq
To fear creatures capable of star travel would be illogical, to quote an old friend. If they have reached a level of civilization that can reach the stars, they’re not likely to be interested in conflict… and, would likely avoid us once they met us, and got a look at our own violent culture…
gigoid
I do not know if I can agree…..the usual example is the American Indian….if they come I do not think they will have a cure for cancer in their hand…..chuq
Ah, my friend, that is projecting your own fears onto the universe…. The Indians were treated badly, yes, but, by US…. A star-faring culture would, logically have moved beyond conquest by force…. The distances involved in space warfare are pretty formidable, making it not worth the effort, from a logistics and tactical viewpoint, at the very least…. It just costs too much to get anywhere, or to maintain supply lines light-years long…..
If they are like us, THEN we would be in trouble, but, it’s doubtful they would be, or they wouldn’t have made it to the stars….
gigoid
what makes us think they will be benevolent? Conquer and occupy….maybe I watch too much scifi but I worry….chuq
The reverse of your query is, I think, more to the point I’m making…. Why do we think they will NOT be benevolent? Because we are not, and would not trust ourselves to be so; hence, we project our own nature onto what we don’t understand….
It’s why our own world is in such a mess, for we do not understand our own minds, and allow our fears to dictate our actions….
We need to grow up….or we’ll never get to the stars ourselves.
gigoid
I guess just knowing man they cannot let a good thing go unchallenged and I think any visitor would be aware of our failing and take advantage….chuq
See? Exactly my point…. Why would they be like us?…. We humans project our own fears onto reality, though there is no evidence our fears are real. We’ll never get much of anywhere until we can grow out of our fear….
gigoid
I do not see much progress for us anytime soon…..do you? chuq
Sadly, no, I don’t….
g
We cannot have an election without fear and hate…..c
A self-fulfilling statement, I think… We are having exactly that kind of election, filled with the hates and fears fanned deliberately, and will continue to do so….as long as people continue to fall for it….
gigoid
g
It does seem to be prophetic…..chuq
Heavenly bodies sing their own songs and some are quite haunting. Here are a few that have been recorded from various space craft from time to time. Maybe this might provide some of the answer to the questions about the strange sounds from distant space: — https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ToXaNUjNfS4
Cool…..thanx for the link….
Forget NASA intercepting possible messages. It’s the NSA who has the answer. Those motherfuckers intercept & store every communication in the galaxy. (For example, this one!)
Galaxy??? Shit, I meant “universe”! (Ruined another good joke)
I figured it out….LOL