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With a Second Repeating Radio Burst, Astronomers Close in on an Explanation
- lifeisstillgood 8y agoI have to say it, but I am quite disappointed it's not intergalactic weapons fire. Or rather, I am quite disappointed that if there is anyone out there, they are not leaving big enough forensics. (but well done to Occam's razor and the hard working scientists who support it)
- antinatal 8y agoThe history of life on this planet is a story of immense and intense suffering. Are you sure you want life to be such a common phenomenon in the universe? Do you think the sense of wonder attached to zipping about in spaceships firing weapons at each other somehow redeems all that suffering?
- hacker_9 8y agoYou are disappointed there isn't an alien race that can shoot us from space with advanced weapons?
- wallace_f 8y agoAn earth could a few hundred LY from us we might not be able to detect it(1). I guess maybe the silence is because of such threats out there. 1-https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/05/31/is-our-civilization-detectable/ https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2012/05/31/is-our-civilizati...
- sbmthakur 8y agoI haven't read the linked article completely. But I think unless we're able to manipulate our Sun's mass or luminosity, it will be extremely difficult to make our civilization difficult.
- wallace_f 8y agoI dont know why people are downvoting this. Virtually every single creature on earth has defense mechanisms against others. Stealth, evasion are very common among the life we know--why would that be so likely to be different for alien life?
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 8y agoYeah, actually. Alien sapience would (almost) undoubtedly have a fascinatingly different perspective than our own, and learning about it could better inform our model of reality. So what if they're more advanced? We will have to come to terms with our collective delusion that humanity is divinely exceptional? Worst case we get wiped out, which is going to happen at some point anyway, but it is more likely that any species with the technology to survive in space long enough to make interstellar travel feasible has little use for our world or its resources and therefore little reason to be overly aggressive. There are those who would argue that math says they should wipe us out because we might one day be a threat to them, but that's a clearly bankrupt philosophy. If that's really how things worked, then every nation, tribe, family, and individual on earth should be doing their best to wipe out every other on the same reasoning.
- praptak 8y agoWe sort of assume without proof that every civilization optimizes for continuation of its own existence. What if it's false and civilizations just detach from the utility function of evolution and choose not to exist anymore?
- TeMPOraL 8y agoCivilizations that choose not to exist will stop existing, thus stop being civilizations, thus stop being in scope for discussions about threats and promises of alien civilizations.
- taneq 8y agoIn the long-enough run, evolution will select for civilizations that don't get bored and opt out.
- krapp 8y agoWhat we seem to assume is that every civilization optimizes for technological progress and territorial expansion. That a species would be capable of interstellar travel and not spend millions of years aggressively exploring and colonizing the galaxy as a first priority just seems too alien.
- freedomben 8y agoBased on the excellent documentary series "Star Trek" I think it's safe to assume there are species that would colonize the galaxy. But on a more serious note. You make an interesting point. Our entire history has been a fight for survival against a merciless environment (and other species). It's a core part of our DNA to colonize, grow, and thrive. But assuming that is representative of what all life would go through may not be safe. It's hard for me to imagine how evolution would create life without the threat of killing off bad mutations, but that doesn't make it impossible. Definitely good to keep an open mind.
- krapp 8y ago
- jniedrauer 8y agoDiscovering type II+ civilizations at this stage in our own civilization would indicate our almost certain impending doom. That would be very sad news for us.
- r00fus 8y agoAs opposed to the almost certain impending doom of human-created origin?
- exit 8y agothe history of life on this planet is a story of immense and intense suffering. are you sure you want life to be such a common phenomenon in the universe? do you think the sense of wonder attached to zipping about in spaceships firing weapons at each other somehow redeems all that suffering?
- wongarsu 8y agoIf given the choice, would you end the human race to stop their suffering? Is life not worth some pain and suffering?
- exit 8y agoi would absolutely do so. no, no amount of "good life" is worth the lives that experience: - burning to death in a fire - dying slowly of cancer - being a transatlantic slave - dying in a concentration camp - slipping into schizophrenia in a medieval society to name a very very few compelling examples. no future can redeem our past. and how can you imagine these things happening many many times over through countless civilisations across the universe, but then regard it all as some delightful space opera? well of course, those who shrug and carry on breeding, or those who manage to rationalise it all to themselves, they populate the future. my sincere hope is that if a super intelligence emerges, it regards this world with a mind free from the survival desperation which being the product of an evolutionary process has imbued us with, and that it then rapidly sets about sterilising as much of its light cone as possible.
- pmoriarty 8y agoI wonder what these would sound like if they were slowed down to be audible to human hearing.
- krapp 8y ago"Thunder" by Imagine Dragons.
- _darude 8y agoSandstorm.
- jcims 8y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3x0sBCQ_c8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3x0sBCQ_c8 The 'chirp' effect of descending tone is due to dispersion and is almost certainly not at the source - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersion_(optics)#Group_and_phase_velocity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispersion_(optics)#Group_and_...
- droptablemain 8y agoSpoiler alert: Not aliens
- bradd 8y agodarn
- _cerv 8y agoI had been hoping to some degree that this and Oumuamua were stronger pieces of hard to answer bits that said maybe, just maybe, these could not be easily explained away as "not from other intelligence". I guess I am just left with long, weirdly spinning, rock thing.
- superkuh 8y agoThere's no one explanation for fast radio bursts. They are a class of things defined by their transient nature but from one to another their spectral appearance can be drastically different. Even from the ones discovered so far it's obvious they're not all one thing. What remains the same is that they're from really far away and they're short. They can tell they're from far away because the broadband pulse has dispersed relative to frequency and the charges along the line of sight from us to it retard the progress of the longer wavelengths more. So it comes in like a 'swoop' of decreasing frequency on on the spectrum vs. time when reality it was more like a broad pulse.
- HocusLocus 8y agoThe closer we are to discovering what causes radio bursts, the closer we come to doom. "We've figured out what causes them!" he spoke to the bored conference audience. They sat up quickly. He continued, "It happens whenever any advanced civilization builds one of these." He takes a strangely shaped device from his pocket. There is a murmur from the crowd. "During the building of this prototype, we have--" and his tentacle fumbled for a moment, and it dropped onto the floor. 4 MILLION YEARS LATER Astronomers have detected their third fast radio burst, and have almost gathered enough data to discover what causes them.
- SiempreViernes 8y agoUh, actually it is repeating radio bursts that are very rare. We’ve seen quite a few of the one-shot ones.
- eclipxe 8y agoWhoosh and you misspelled ackshually
- hn_KindaSucks 8y agoDear 500 Karma Lords, This kind of comment deserves the opposite of a downvote. Love, One of your Betters
- elorant 8y agoYou write it, I'll buy it.