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Mystery Intergalactic Radio Bursts Detected

Posted by timothy on from the fireworks-duh dept.

astroengine writes "Astronomers were on a celestial fishing expedition for pulsing neutron stars and other radio bursts when they found something unexpected in archived sky sweeps conducted by the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia. The powerful signal, which lasted for just milliseconds, could have been a fluke, but then the team found three more equally energetic transient flashes all far removed from the galactic plane and coming from different points in the sky. Astronomers are at a loss to explain what these flashes are — they could be a common astrophysical phenomenon that has only just been detected as our radio antennae have become sensitive enough, or they could be very rare and totally new phenomenon that, so far, defies explanation."

12 of 259 comments (clear)

  1. First post by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

    And perhaps the last when the alien invasion force, of which we observed the launch, reaches earth.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
    1. Re:First post by PPH · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Oh, and you aliens. Your browsers have a back door for which we discovered a zero day exploit. You should have given the adoption of IE some careful thought."

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    2. Re:First post by Beardo+the+Bearded · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Two possibilities exist -- either we are alone in the universe or we are not. I am unsure which is more terrifying."

      --

      ---
      ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
    3. Re:First post by anubi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have often pondered this as well... if there are another civilization out there. Advanced enough to build interstellar transport. Would they by their advanced technology be benevolent?

      Or would they be desperately looking for any habitable planet that had the capacity to support life?

      Would they consider us as we would consider finding a large land mass on earth, inhabited by roaches and rodents?

      From what I can tell, our Earth is a veritable jewel in the vastness of space. Our water is abundant, yet we have land, a stable orbit, a stable Sun. And a rich assortment of mineral elements. Its something any entity would greatly treasure. For now, its ours because "they" do not know it exists. If "they" knew about it, would they claim it was theirs?

      I feel if we are not alone, just the sheer laws of time and physics is all that separates us from other forces which could take everything we know away. I have a hard time thinking that if we are not alone in this universe, we are the most advanced. We would be in a poor position to wage any sort of war against those who have developed interstellar travel, as their ability to direct energy obviously is greater than ours, and directed energy is what wins wars.

      So far, I have seen little to suggest the existence of another species out there, but lack of evidence is not evidence they do not exist. From a cockroach's point of view, I probably do not exist either. Its only been within my generation that electromagnetism has been understood to a point we can use it as a communications medium. I have no idea what other technologies are out there, as of yet undiscovered, and no knowledge whatsoever of their existence.

      --
      "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]

  2. War! by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Funny

        The intergalactic war is getting closer. We can hear the explosions now. It's only a matter of time before they get here. It's a good thing our space program has done so well, and we've started colonizing other planets, otherwise our species would be lost forever.

        Oh .. fuck .. We don't have a space program, only a high altitude orbital flight program. Well, it's been nice knowing you all.

    --
    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    1. Re:War! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny

      why would they bother with Earth ? Deep gravity well, close to the sun and plagued with solar flares, full of microbes ...

      'Cause free-range brains taste better.

      --
      Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
    2. Re:War! by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Humans make a great slave labor force. Well, the ones that aren't served.

      Where else in this part of the galaxy can you pick up 7.1 billion slaves, who will willingly work for slips of paper representing the idea of an exchange for goods and services? That, and they reproduce so readily, culling 50% of the population, their numbers will return in just a couple decades.

      There's so many of them, you could have them build monuments to your memory. You can have them stack stones. You could even have them do it in the desert, and they'll not only do it, but they'll admire them as one of their greatest feats.

      Is the trip too long? You could pick up just a seed population of say 1000, and end up with millions of obedient subjects when you deliver them. Nothing is better than a cargo that grows during shipment.

      The trick to their obedience is to tell them that they have free will, but make them worship and obey you under threat of perpetual torment. Most of those fools will believe anything. Just watch out for the atheists. They'll see right through most of those scams, and try to take over your ship. Make up something about an occupying evil, and the brainwashed masses will turn against them.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  3. Required by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 5, Funny

    "I for one welcome our new..."

    Ah, nevermind.

  4. Re:Chances of this being something are a million t by Jmc23 · · Score: 5, Informative

    um, the probability of this being something is 1. Now the probability of this being something interesting...

    --
    Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
  5. Four bursts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quick! Triangulate where in space time that these four events wavefronts will arrive simultaneously..

    And point all your telescopes there.

    1. Re:Four bursts? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's too late. We've detected all four events, so we're inside the expanding spherical wavefronts of all of them: the intersection has already happened. Because they were all detected so close together (less than a year apart), the intersection must have been very close; and since the last one was over a year ago (January 2012), any signal from the intersection point has already passed us by.

      The other problem is that single-dish radio telescopes don't give us a very precise idea of where the signal comes from. We just know that each of them came from somewhere in a patch of sky about the size of the moon. Ideally, what we'd like to do is to detect one of these signals with two telescopes at once. That would confirm that it's a real thing (rather than a bug in one of the telescopes); and the times of arrival at the two telescopes would tell us very precisely where the signal came from.

      (I am a radio astronomer, but I don't work on the type of transients described in the article.)

  6. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It was a million voices crying out then suddenly silenced.

    Remember, this flash came from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.