3 ms·
Interesting, this is probably the right approach to searching for the aliens civilizations. These guys should have globally visible intergalactic GPS, we just h
by viach 9y ago
Interesting, this is probably the right approach to searching for the aliens civilizations. These guys should have globally visible intergalactic GPS, we just have to imagine how and where they would put the searchlights, the most effective places.
- fooker 9y agoWhat if these pulsars are their 'GPS satellites'?
- viach 9y agoThere should be some logic. Someone should create a project of this imaginary galactic GPS infrastructure, taking into a count all the details - potentially limited resources needed to build it, maximum visibility, distances coverage and then compare it to the map of these pulsars. And if there is bingo or sort of, we could get the space points where to rearrange our radio telescopes to listen to.
- fooker 9y agoI can imagine some kind of optimization problem, the solution for which would be the ideal locations for these bodies. Unfortunately I do not understand enough physics to give a concrete problem.
- welterde 9y agoThere probably would be no need to build anything, since we already can use pulsars for that (XNAV; what this article is about) and the achievable resolution should be more than good enough to be able to use it for navigation inside our solar system (couple km iirc).
- viach 9y agoMy point was not that we need to build something, but that if we would need to build it , we build it in the same locations.
- egypturnash 9y agoFrom the end of TFA: Indeed, it’s so incredible that some might see in this accomplishment hints that there could be more at work than nature here. Even before these measurements were taken by NICER, a group of researchers at the Free University of Brussels led by Clément Vidal explored whether these x-ray millisecond pulsars could have been arrayed around the galaxy on purpose. In a preprint titled “Pulsar Positioning System: A quest for evidence of extraterrestrial engineering,” they examine that albeit remote possibility.