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Alien Hunters Discover Mysterious Signal from Proxima Centauri
- BruceEel 6y agoMore about the frequency drift: "The positive drift rate actually to me argues in favor of it being extrasolar technology, because that implies it is significantly accelerating with respect to the barycentric frame." https://twitter.com/Astro_Wright/status/1340119074756550656?s=20 https://twitter.com/Astro_Wright/status/1340119074756550656?...
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y ago928Mhz. That's some GSM-Booster ET is using there!
- jose-cl 6y agoso aliens are calling by phone?
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoWho knows? TBH I had this movie from 1982 in my mind https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial wherein some sort of turtle/reptiloid alien is somehow stranded on Earth, and can make electronic(or all sorts of things? (can't remember anymore)) work with his (on demand) red glowing finger. And tries to build a "telephone" out of trash with the help of a child, to "phone home" and call for help.
- rurban 6y agoNope, they sent a rocket or satellite. The positive doppler shift means it's heading towards us, fast. If we would fly there, we would need about 80 years with our current rocket tech. It's the nearest earth-like planet afterall. They could be more advanced and be here earlier. We'll see.
- u801e 6y agoThe voyager 1 probe is about 21 light hours from us after 43 years even with gravitational assist. Proxima Centauri is about 4.2 light years away.
- rurban 6y agoCurrent rocket tech, not stone age.
- u801e 6y agoEven the New Horizons spacecraft's speed relative to earth is less than Voyager 1, and it was launched back in 2006.
- rurban 6y agoStill plain old conventional rockets. This would need 78.000 years, impossible. Eg with a lightsail or StarChip it would need 20 years. There are also other possibilities. My neighbor is rocket technician. https://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time https://earthsky.org/space/alpha-centauri-travel-time
- u801e 6y agoYou did specify current rocket tech. The technologies you're talking about have not been tested or used commercially or by any space agency as far as I'm aware.
- cozzyd 6y ago982 MHz. 928 MHz is in the unlicensed band and would probably be Lorawan or something.
- king_magic 6y agoIf - and it’s a HUGE if - it’s actually a technological signal - would be cool if it was a Contact-like repeater probe designed to eventually get our attention. Because the Proxima Centauri neighborhood doesn’t really seem like it can harbor life for long enough to evolve to at least the level of radio communication.
- stevenhuang 6y agoOn what basis do you make that assertion? We don't know much about the system.
- dvh 6y agoProxima is flare star, massive stellar winds would outstrip any atmosphere, habitable zone is on approximately 11d orbital period, more x-rays than sun, etc...
- bassman9000 6y agoWouldn't that destroy any RF-capable probe?
- b34r 6y agoNot a shielded one
- weare138 6y agoSomething I always thought about is if there was advanced civilizations elsewhere in the universe colonizing planets they would probably build their settlements/bases underground or possibly even under water to protect them from cosmological threats like meteors, comets, solar flares/radiation, etc. akin to our nuclear bases like Cheyenne Mountain.
- avaldeso 6y agoIf they're so advanced why build colonies in extremely dangerous environments? There's a lot of better places out there
- gmuslera 6y agoThat it seem to come from our closest star system should be a very big coincidence if it comes from an alien civilization. A natural, or somewhat human origin seems more likely.
- kordlessagain 6y ago> should be a very big coincidence If life in the universe is common, then it should come as no surprise that it is found close together.
- sergiomattei 6y agoWait, the thing is flying towards us?!
- dunefox 6y agoGod, I hope so.
- URfejk 6y agoThis is what they heard when they decyphered the signal:"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."
- pp19dd 6y agoAny radio / power transmission experts here to chime in on that 982.002 MHz frequency? I'm not wearing a tinfoil hat here, but started wondering about the theoretical purpose of a monotonous 982.002 MHz signal. Best my both brain cells could come up with is either a - remote power transmission, or b - optimizing a signal to avoid absorption by water. The optimal frequency studies for power transmission I saw were all for biological applications, like pacemakers and they do come in at somewhere around 1 GHz. The optimal frequency seems to be dialed in to minimize energy losses absorbed by tissue, meaning in our case, water in cells? Remote spectroscopy must show Earth reeks of water. And water is the cheapest and most effective radiation shielding there is. Does any of that track for anyone who knows what they're talking about, because I sure don't?
- mrtnmcc 6y agoBeing a precise base ten integer suggests it is human derived. 982.000 MHz is the second harmonic of 491.000 MHz, which is the center of Channel 17, UHF Television. It is probably the local oscillator of a broadcast TV tower. Harmonics can be easily generated by any nonlinear process, such as amplifiers or even a rusty contact.
- mrtnmcc 6y agoOr the aliens liked what we broadcast on CH17 a decade ago and are asking for more :)
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoBring back Mork and Mindy.
- graderjs 6y ago491 is also interesting https://primes.utm.edu/curios/page.php/491.html https://primes.utm.edu/curios/page.php/491.html But maybe 982 has something to do with a frequency that can easily travel through that part of the interstellar medium without disturbance.
- 6y ago
- bra-ket 6y agohow long does it take for this signal to reach Earth?
- Ancapistani 6y agoProxima Centauri is 4.2 light years away, therefore it takes 4.2 to send a signal from there to here (or vice-versa) Assuming this is an intelligently-created signal, then it’s most likely something that was transmitted from Earth 8.4 years ago.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- richardfey 6y agoCan someone please tell me why articles of this type leave me with a feeling like "this could have been said in 50 words"? Is it because the author was tasked with filling x pages and then proceeded to dilute the content as needed? I wish there was a way to identify these articles before-hand and...not read them, or get a summary. I totally want to read full articles when they are NOT written this way.