Repeating rapid radio bursts.

[Gingerbread Demon]

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/home-galaxy-second-repeating-fast-radio-burst-is-puzzle


I really wish with all my heart that this is a genuine signal but I don't hold any actual hope that it is. The only thing that gives me hope is that this is a repeating signal of regular intervals.

Wouldn't it be grand if we one day find the real deal?

 

[Santaman]

Panic, mass hysteria.. yeah it would be a good day..

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

It would upset a lot of religious folk who believe in a god that created the Universe just for their kind.

FRBs are probably magnetars and black holes with accretion discs having an intrinsic magnet field. Any advanced aliens would probably use means other than radio waves to communicate and any signal would likely appear almost random if it were highly compressed. I'm also of the opinion that it might not be a good idea to advertise one's existence too loudly if you don't know whether the natives are friendly.

ETA: Wobbling magnetar hypothesis: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.04595v1, https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.02553v1

 

[publiusr]

Some more on this:
www.cnet.com/news/mysterious-looping-space-signal-could-be-aliens-says-harvard-scientist/

It also doesn't make much sense to send a message across the universe when it would likely take millions of years to receive a reply. Further, he explains, if it were a message meant for a recipient much closer than us, there would be no reason to make the signal so powerful.

But a super-powerful energy beam would be useful in propelling spacecraft across the cosmos. And if some FRBs are really the leakage from such a beam that misses or spills over the edges of an alien light sail, Loeb says it would have to be a very capable civilization behind the technology.

Technosignatures are being looked for
www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/alien-life-extraterrestrials-seti-latest-observatory-a9336681.html
www.space.com/interstellar-comet-borisov-seti-technosignatures-search.html

 

[Santaman]

So something like a lightcraft getting a propulsive kick in the butt, quite a nice thought.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Or what if it's the warping and de-warping of a ship with an Alcubierre drive?

 

[StarCruiser]

^ That would really rock! (Unless they're Klingons heading our way...)

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

^ That would really rock! (Unless they're Klingons heading our way...)

No they're not Klingons they don't exist remember.

Here's another thought if we are picking these things up they're in our past, but if they are actual signals, and a real big IF there because I really don't think they are despite all my wishes. The thing is on their side if they detected us would we be in their past as well?

 

[StarCruiser]

By the time they got here - yep... Way in their past.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

By the time they got here - yep... Way in their past.

So if we are in their future they are in our future...... Hmmmm wonder what their tech is like.

 

[Santaman]

Hopefully less on an insuficient budget than ours and probably not made in China..

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Hopefully less on an insuficient budget than ours and probably not made in China..

What you mean there's space China too?

 

[Santaman]

I don't think aliens buy from China..

 

[BillJ]

Obviously not meant for us if it is from an alien civilization. There was no one here to respond.

I tend to think it was something natural.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

I don't think aliens buy from China..

Obviously not our China, but Space China, it's like Space Japan

 

[tharpdevenport]

One could assume that even if it turns out to be a real signal and we can decode it, that doesn't necessarily mean that since they are long gone by millions of years that the signal is worthless; perhaps they foresaw their demise and sent out info' on who they were in hopes that it was preserved to some degree. Think "The Inner Light".

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

One could assume that even if it turns out to be a real signal and we can decode it, that doesn't necessarily mean that since they are long gone by millions of years that the signal is worthless; perhaps they foresaw their demise and sent out info' on who they were in hopes that it was preserved to some degree. Think "The Inner Light".

That is a really good way to look at this.

So being such a beacon they threw as much power behind it as they could in the hopes someone finds it.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Maybe they have evolved so far since they sent the signal that they can now not only detect almost instantly that we have received it, but that they can now physically traverse the district between us and them in mear days and they they will be here next week for a visit.

 

[Gingerbread Demon]

Maybe they have evolved so far since they sent the signal that they can now not only detect almost instantly that we have received it, but that they can now physically traverse the district between us and them in mear days and they they will be here next week for a visit.

I hope not, it won't end well.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

^^I for one welcome our new alian overlords, but your name will go into zee book.