Maybe Aliens: Astronomers have found the source of a deep space radio wave burst for the first time - Polidicks

[quote] After a decade of bewilderment, astronomers have pinpointed the source of a mysterious blast of radio waves coming from deep outside the Milky Way: a dwarf galaxy located 3 billion light years from Earth. It’s a remarkable first in the study of what has been a tremendous astronomical puzzle. Scientists still don’t know what causes these deep space pulses, but locating the galaxy that spawned one brings us closer to figuring out where they come from. First discovered in 2007, only 18 of these phenomena have ever been detected. They’re called fast radio bursts, or FRBs, because they occur for just milliseconds; their fleeting nature makes it tough to catch one in action, and even tougher to figure out the exact spot in the sky they’re coming from. But astronomers got lucky when they found a particular burst known as FRB 121102: it is the only one known to repeat, meaning multiple radio bursts have been detected coming from the same location in the sky. That makes it easier for scientists to catch again, Shami Chatterjee, an astronomer at Cornell University who discovered the repetition, tells The Verge. That discovery gave Chatterjee the idea to continually observe FRB 121102 with a huge network of radio telescopes. And sure enough, he and his team were able to get high-resolution images of multiple bursts after many hours of observation, allowing them to track down the source of FRB 121102. Their work is detailed today in three studies published in Nature and The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Now that researchers know the cosmic neighborhood generating the FRBs, they can study the galaxy more closely — which may help figure out the origins of these fast pulses. There may be other uses for FRBs, too. Since FRBs originate so far away, they have to pass through a lot of interstellar junk, such as gas and plasma, to reach Earth. Once scientists know which exact galaxy the signal comes from, the radio waves could help scientists determine just how much gas and plasma they had to pass through to get here. “The analogy I use is that until now, we could potentially know the country it came from,” Heino Falcke, a radio astronomer at the Radboud University Nijmegen who wrote an accompanying editorial about the discovery, tells The Verge. “Now we know the home address.”[/quote] [url]http://www.theverge.com/2017/1/4/14158048/deep-space-fast-radio-wave-burst-frb-121101[/url]

[IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Contact_ver2.jpg[/IMG]

this is almost certainly not aliens and if it were aliens, they would have sent out the radio signals 3 billion years ago. Whatever's there is probably dead

Sounds more like a huge cosmic event, like a supernova or something even bigger, and less like emissions of an intelligent race, to me at least. I mean [quote]3 billion light years from Earth[/quote] who would broadcast such a strong signal that it would be detectable from so far away

[QUOTE=Svinnik;51627168]this is almost certainly not aliens and if it were aliens, they would have sent out the radio signals 3 billion years ago. Whatever's there is probably dead[/QUOTE] FTFY don't kill my hope and dreams of tall blue aliens

Multiple theories are proposed in the article, literally none of them involve aliens of any sort. [quote]Another possibility is that the FRB is coming from a type of dense neutron star with an incredibly strong magnetic field, called a magnetar. Astronomers have discovered magnetars in our galaxy that produce bright radio pulses, but nothing as bright as FRB 121101. So something would have to be amplifying the pulses, like the way a magnifying glass focuses a beam of light on ants. That may mean blobs of plasma are lining up just right to focus the radio waves on Earth, making them extra bright, says Chatterjee. “This is very plausible,” he says. “We’re not invoking any radical new physics.”[/quote] This sounds about right, pulsars for instance also tend to send intermittent signals like this. Just because it's intermittent doesn't mean it's unnatural.

[QUOTE=Drury;51627185]Sounds more like a huge cosmic event, like a supernova or something even bigger, and less like emissions of an intelligent race, to me at least. I mean who would broadcast such a strong signal that it would be detectable from so far away[/QUOTE] I'm pretty sure that we do, all the time.

[QUOTE=Laserbeams;51627451]I'm pretty sure that we do, all the time.[/QUOTE] Your wifi has a reach of 3 billion light years? Holy shit where'd you buy that

If there's any pattern to the FRB then that'd raise eyebrows (i.e. some sort of modulation), but if its just broadband noise then its probably some neutron star, pulsar, etc.

[QUOTE=LoneWolf_Recon;51627478]If there's any pattern to the FRB then that'd raise eyebrows (i.e. some sort of modulation), but if its just broadband noise then its probably some neutron star, pulsar, etc.[/QUOTE] Or a [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar"]magnetar[/URL], or a[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernova"] superluminous supernovae[/URL], or any of the other incredible catastrophic events that were common in the early universe's dwarf galaxies (keep in mind just how far back in [I]time[/I] this event is/was ohgodpronouns) Remember that weird fading star everyone thought was aliens or a dyson sphere? This is like that. Its not aliens - sorry. But the answer is probably far weirder. We STILL don't know what's causing that star to periodically dim, and its been steadily dimming for a century. Space still has tons of mysteries that aren't aliens.

What if its us sending signals back through time?

[QUOTE=Drury;51627199]Multiple theories are proposed in the article, literally none of them involve aliens of any sort. This sounds about right, pulsars for instance also tend to send intermittent signals like this. Just because it's intermittent doesn't mean it's unnatural.[/QUOTE] We still don't understand entirely how pulsars and magnetars and the like work, despite being able to use them as standard candles and timekeeping mechanisms for deep-space astrophysics and astronomy. The periodicity of their emissions and flaring is uncanny, and we can predict with near-perfect accuracy how they will signal and how that signal will change over time. We don't really know how they emit this radiation, though, or where exactly it comes from. Just how to time it. Which is kinda odd. [editline]5th January 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=Source;51627649]What if its us sending signals back through time?[/QUOTE] okay, interstellar [editline]5th January 2017[/editline] ill go get my hans zimmer organ blasts brb, those should carry a few light years at least

[QUOTE=paindoc;51627634]Or a [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar"]magnetar[/URL], or a[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypernova"] superluminous supernovae[/URL], or any of the other incredible catastrophic events that were common in the early universe's dwarf galaxies (keep in mind just how far back in [I]time[/I] this event is/was ohgodpronouns) Remember that weird fading star everyone thought was aliens or a dyson sphere? This is like that. Its not aliens - sorry. But the answer is probably far weirder. We STILL don't know what's causing that star to periodically dim, and its been steadily dimming for a century. Space still has tons of mysteries that aren't aliens.[/QUOTE] Magnetars are scary shit, they fucking change the orbits of electrons in atoms making life impossible.

[QUOTE=Source;51627649]What if its us sending signals back through time?[/QUOTE] What if it's a pulsar

[QUOTE=paindoc;51627654]We still don't understand entirely how pulsars and magnetars and the like work, despite being able to use them as standard candles and timekeeping mechanisms for deep-space astrophysics and astronomy. The periodicity of their emissions and flaring is uncanny, and we can predict with near-perfect accuracy how they will signal and how that signal will change over time. We don't really know how they emit this radiation, though, or where exactly it comes from. Just how to time it. Which is kinda odd.[/QUOTE] There's a pretty good theory that pulsars spin really fast and only emit vast amounts of radiation out of their poles, causing them to appear to blink as they aim a pole towards and away from our direction. Of course that's just one possible explanation. Could be a number of astral mechanics and electromagnetic phenomena at work.

What potentially nice timing. My girlfriend got me an original double sided contact movie poster for christmas. [img]https://s27.postimg.org/rs0ims401/IMG_2203.jpg[/img]

[QUOTE=Drury;51627185]Sounds more like a huge cosmic event, like a supernova or something even bigger, and less like emissions of an intelligent race, to me at least. I mean who would broadcast such a strong signal that it would be detectable from so far away[/QUOTE] Maybe it was a prank of the intern Oogley Doogley at the Alien News Network while he was having his lunchtime and wanted to wake up old Snorey McLorkltum who just happens to sleep when he is not working.

[QUOTE=Drury;51627690]There's a pretty good theory that pulsars spin really fast and only emit vast amounts of radiation out of their poles, causing them to appear to blink as they aim a pole towards and away from our direction. Of course that's just one possible explanation. Could be a number of astral mechanics and electromagnetic phenomena at work.[/QUOTE] Oh, that's the really well-accepted theory of HOW they emit radiation. We don't know WHERE that radiation is coming from or WHY its emitting though. That's one that we're completely stuck on.

Guys, the only way we know galaxies can submit gigantic radio waves that far out and still reach us is because of two supermassive black holes literally warping space around them and flinging radio waves out at unbelievable levels. This is a naturally occurring phenomenon that is caused by the merger of two galaxies and we see it much more often the farther out (longer ago in time) we look (it's still rare though). The FRBs are an interesting puzzle when discussing these galaxies because we don't really have a good clue as to what conditions form them. We have always suspected that it's a similar process to normal radio galaxies but we've never been able to spot an FRB before now so we couldn't be sure. The reason this is huge is because we've [i]finally[/i] been able to spot one of these things and can now study their composition. tl;dr: not aliens, just black holes. [img]https://www.nasa.gov/images/content/709513main_hercules-670.jpg[/img] Here's an image of a normal radio galaxy. It's pretty damn cool looking. The black holes shoot out gases at a pace far faster than anything else we've ever been able to observe. [editline]5th January 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=paindoc;51627772]Oh, that's the really well-accepted theory of HOW they emit radiation. We don't know WHERE that radiation is coming from or WHY its emitting though. That's one that we're completely stuck on.[/QUOTE] No, we know how pulsars work. It's a neutron star that is rotating at an extremely high angular velocity that came from the energy released from the death of the original star it came from.

[QUOTE=Hellsten;51627148][IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Contact_ver2.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] That is a fantastic movie, and if you haven't seen it before I'd highly recommend it. It was essentially written by Carl Sagan. [highlight]Also, please...[/highlight] For the love of fucking God [URL="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v541/n7635/full/nature20797.html"]post the journal article[/URL] with anything remotely scientific in nature! It's in the bloody source article.

[QUOTE=Bradyns;51628170]That is a fantastic movie, and if you haven't seen it before I'd highly recommend it. It was essentially written by Carl Sagan.[/QUOTE] Is it bad that I read the plot summary on wikipedia instead? I tend to do that for movies really. I don't go out of my way to usually watch them.

[QUOTE=Laserbeams;51627451]I'm pretty sure that we do, all the time.[/QUOTE]I'm pretty damn sure we don't broadcast any signal with a million billion yottawatts of power

[QUOTE=BlackMageMari;51628194]Is it bad that I read the plot summary on wikipedia instead? I tend to do that for movies really. I don't go out of my way to usually watch them.[/QUOTE] You miss the magic in the film.. of a daughter who transforms her childhood love of the stars into a diminishing career that turns out to be more than anyone could have dreamed of.. Plot summaries are one thing, but seeing the raw emotions as this epic story progresses is something else. Imagine only reading the summary of 2001: A Space Odyssey.. You'd completely forgo the beautiful alignment of cinematography, music, and art of Kubrick.

[QUOTE=Laserbeams;51627451]I'm pretty sure that we do, all the time.[/QUOTE] Nonononono, we don't put [i]anything[/i] remotely as powerful a signal out as this into the void. Like, even a massive star imploding doesn't even hold a fucking candle to radio galaxies. Absolutely nothing in the universe comes close to their output. This goes for FRBs too.

[QUOTE=Bradyns;51628219]You miss the magic in the film.. of a daughter who transforms her childhood love of the stars into a diminishing career that turns out to be more than anyone could have dreamed of.. Plot summaries are one thing, but seeing the raw emotions as this epic story progresses is something else. Imagine only reading the summary of 2001: A Space Odyssey.. You'd completely forgo the beautiful alignment of cinematography, music, and art of Kubrick.[/QUOTE] I still find [sp]the moment of first detection, when Foster's character is listening through the headset and the signal slowly fades in, only for her to rush back to the control room[/sp] to be one of the most heart racing/yes-yes-yes moments in the film. (Among other things)

[QUOTE=Hellsten;51627148][IMG]https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/75/Contact_ver2.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE] Here's to hoping we receive a picture of Hitler.

[QUOTE=ExplodingGuy;51628199]I'm pretty damn sure we don't broadcast any signal with a million billion yottawatts of power[/QUOTE] What's more is that Earth's "radio bubble" is about 200 lightyears in diameter so far. At that distance, a 1MW radio signal would be 2.8 * 10^-27 W in power at that distance which is 3 magnitudes weaker in power than the [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBm#Unit_conversions"]cosmic background noise[/URL].

[QUOTE=ForgottenKane;51628109] No, we know how pulsars work. It's a neutron star that is rotating at an extremely high angular velocity that came from the energy released from the death of the original star it came from.[/QUOTE] Everyone keeps restating the base mechanics of pulsars as I misunderstand those, or as if we don't understand those. Yes, we know that they rotate strongly. Yes, we know that synchrotron radiation and extremely strong magnetic fields combine to create a beam of radiation - which sweeps like a lighthouse because of that rotation. We also understand that the energy in these pulses/radiation beams comes from the rotational kinetic energy of the star, found using its moment of inertia (we can assume a perfect sphere, neglecting bulging near the equator): [t]http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/Academics/Astr221/LifeCycle/kinetic.gif[/t] P is the period. Solving for dK/dT, if we know the change in peridocity over an interval of time (and this tends to remain fairly uniform) the change in energy is given as follows: [t]http://burro.astr.cwru.edu/Academics/Astr221/LifeCycle/dkdt.gif[/t] So this is stuff we know. it lines up with experimental data. What we don't KNOW is exactly how this kinetic energy is translated into radiative energy of varying types. We have several theories and models, but there is still some doubt: [quote]"The theory of how pulsars emit their radiation is still in its infancy, even after nearly forty years of work," says Werner Becker, Max-Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik, Garching, Germany. There are many models but no accepted theory. [/quote] [URL="http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Old_pulsars_still_have_new_tricks_to_teach_us"]link to article[/URL] One of the theories is as follows, and it makes sense: [quote]Near the surface of the neutron star, the magnetic field is changing rapidly as the neutron star spins. A changing magnetic field induces a strong electric field. This electric field can be stronger than the force of gravity holding the charged particles onto the neutron star's crust. So charged particles are pulled off the surface and flung off into space, continually powering the synchroton radiation. The charged particles can emit radiation beamed along their direction of motion, making the coherent beam from the pulsar.[/quote] This is one of the more accepted models, but its still pretty hard to get solid data and "proof", so to speak, of stellar objects like these. Still, I know this isn't his field of study but I'm not as well-versed in raw physics as he is: :johnnymo1: maybe he (or other FP physicists, I know there are a few) can provide more input and clarify things (or put me soundly back in my place). I know this came up in my astronomy for engineers class, which was pretty much just Astronomy 101 featuring a faster pace and much more actual data and math.

[QUOTE=Svinnik;51627168]this is almost certainly not aliens and if it were aliens, they would have sent out the radio signals 3 billion years ago. Whatever's there is probably dead[/QUOTE] Yeah no, it's definitely not a supernova. They tend to last much longer than a few milliseconds.

Listen all I want to know is when I get to see all that nice alien poon :q: