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Astronomers Record Mystery Radio Signals From 5.5 Billion Light Years Away

sarahnaomi writes For the first time ever, astronomers have captured an enormous radio wave burst in real time, bringing us one step closer to understanding their origins. These fleeting eruptions, called blitzars or FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts), are truly bizarre cosmic phenomena. In the span of a millisecond, they emit as much radiation as the Sun does over a million years. But unlike other super-luminous events that span multiple wavelengths—gamma ray bursts or supernovae, for example—blitzars emit all that energy in a tiny band of the radio light spectrum. Adding to the mystery is the rarity of blitzar sightings. Since these bursts were first discovered in 2007 with Australia's Parkes Telescope, ten have been identified, the latest of which was the first to be imaged in real time.

121 comments

  1. This has been know for a while... by beheaderaswp · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is obviously an advanced data stream which we are intercepting. Civilizations who do not have control over quantum entanglement, Use compressed radio bursts at unbelievable magnitude to transfer massive amounts of information across multiple civilizations simultaneously.

    This has been known for about 10 years. But suppressed due to it;s sensitive nature.

    Attempts to decode the messages have only been marginally successful. The one small decoded message translated into English is roughly: "Never going to give..."

    The rest of the message can only be guessed at.

    --
    Another consultant who stuck it out.

    "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
    1. Re:This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, no, no. It's remnants of yet another hyperspace bypass being built by the Volgons.

    2. Re:This has been know for a while... by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Funny

      You mean they went to all that trouble to Rickroll us from billions of light years away? They have too much free time.

    3. Re:This has been know for a while... by neilo_1701D · · Score: 1, Funny

      Nah, wouldn't happen. It's more likely some transient event like a black hole collision or a neutron star undergoing a transformation.

      Or something.

    4. Re:This has been know for a while... by Arkh89 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Civilizations who do not have control over quantum entanglement, Use compressed radio bursts at unbelievable magnitude to transfer massive amounts of information across multiple civilizations simultaneously.

      Wait.... Do you think that this is Bennett Haselton transferring is next article to Slashdot Editors???

    5. Re:This has been know for a while... by mekkab · · Score: 3, Insightful

      don't be a hater; it's a solid "B" effort from the parent-post. You can argue it down to a "C", but that's as far as you'll get. Lulling the reader into submission (your complaint about it taking too long) is an actual STRATEGY. Are you familiar with how certain readers can gloss over typos? That's what our beheaderaswp is using as a trapping action. Now you can also argue that the barb "never going to give" isn't worth burying with the lead-up, but while humor bursts from the unexpected there is also a joy in the familiar. I'm sorry if this attempt isn't up to your standards, but it hits the standard.

      --
      In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
    6. Re:This has been know for a while... by beheaderaswp · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Thanks for that.

      I've never been modded down before though. It kinda hurts.

      --
      Another consultant who stuck it out.

      "We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
    7. Re:This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Astley is one of them.

    8. Re:This has been know for a while... by mekkab · · Score: 0

      Never?! Get used to it! :)

      --
      In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
    9. Re:This has been know for a while... by meglon · · Score: 1

      You're almost correct.... the complete message has been deciphered: "Drink more Ovaltine"

      --
      Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
    10. Re:This has been know for a while... by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Funny

      > only for it to be a hackneyed reference to a reddit meme so old that it's practically dust?

      Well, it *was* coming from 5.5 billion light years away. They can't be expected to be up on the latest memes.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    11. Re:This has been know for a while... by roc97007 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Never? Really? Wow. There should be a special Achievement just for that.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    12. Re:This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED

    13. Re:This has been know for a while... by xeoron · · Score: 1

      Maybe it is the first fight in the Civil War that Q started. After all, star trek tng is based on stories from the future brought to us by time traveler Gene Roddenberry.

    14. Re:This has been know for a while... by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      You have never heard of a Shaggy Dog Story?

    15. Re:This has been know for a while... by R3d+M3rcury · · Score: 1

      "No Soap, Radio!"

    16. Re:This has been know for a while... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're not trying hard enough then. :-) One of the benefits of excellent karma is that you can bring out the flamethrower to crisp up some fool on occasion without too many consequences.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    17. Re:This has been know for a while... by jeffb+(2.718) · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, no, you're falling into the old fallacy of confusing "information" and "data".

    18. Re: This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Send more Chuck Berry"

    19. Re:This has been know for a while... by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, I was duped into watching LOST too.

      Those aliens are going to be pissed.

    20. Re:This has been know for a while... by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

      I've never been modded down before though.

      "What, never?"
      "Well, hardly ever!"

      --
      Good, inexpensive web hosting
    21. Re:This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hater?

      What's wrong, actual english too hard for you?

    22. Re:This has been know for a while... by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      What's wrong, actual english too hard for you?

      What's wrong, actual capitalisation of proper nouns too hard for you?

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    23. Re:This has been know for a while... by wolverine1999 · · Score: 1

      The message seems to be NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP !

      Have they been RICK ROLLING us?

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    24. Re:This has been know for a while... by JimSadler · · Score: 1

      It is simply a black hole collapsing and releasing its energy suddenly.

    25. Re:This has been know for a while... by tommeke100 · · Score: 1

      I'm not clicking that link at work. Best Case it's a RickRoll Youtube link, Worst case it's goatse :p

    26. Re:This has been know for a while... by NotDrWho · · Score: 1

      What I want to know is how we captured it real-time when it happened 5.5 billion years ago. Have the men in black invented time travel? WHAT ARE THEY NOT TELLING US??

      --
      SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
    27. Re:This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      that was such a long winded response; i saw it and i kept reading it just for the punchline.

    28. Re:This has been know for a while... by cellocgw · · Score: 1

      What's wrong, actual english too hard for you?

      What's wrong, actual capitalisation of proper nouns too hard for you?

      What's wrong: understanding the difference between "," and ":" too hard for you?

      so there. hahahaHAAAAAAha

      --
      https://app.box.com/WitthoftResume Code: https://github.com/cellocgw
    29. Re:This has been know for a while... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is simply a black hole collapsing and releasing its energy suddenly.

      You mean releasing its information

    30. Re:This has been know for a while... by mcswell · · Score: 1

      "The rest of the message can only be guessed at."

      Well, I'll guess. It's 42.

    31. Re:This has been know for a while... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      If the worst you can think of is being Goatse-d, then you do need to get out more. Or speak to someone who is allowed out without supervision by a particularly repressed adult.

      (Incidentally, goatse.cx is a perfectly respectable mail service these days. I use it for my online courses.)

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
  2. rs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Care to finish the title?

    1. Re:rs? by pla · · Score: 1

      The subby did finish it. Just read it as an exclamation of joy. "Astronomers something something stuff - YEAH!!!"

  3. Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust... by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 4, Funny

    No worries ladies and gents. Just some black hole or star being absorbed into a circle of more stable vacuum than the twitchy sort of vacuum we have over here. Move along. Move along. There's literally nothing to see there.

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  4. I felt it too. by 140Mandak262Jamuna · · Score: 4, Funny

    I felt a great disturbance, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible had happened 5.5 billion light years away.

    --
    sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
    1. Re:I felt it too. by Kjella · · Score: 3

      I fear something terrible had happened 5.5 billion light years away.

      Well in that case it also happened 5.5 billion years ago, so your warning may be a little late. Then again they did say it happened long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    2. Re:I felt it too. by roc97007 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yeah, they just got their own version of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
    3. Re:I felt it too. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, they just got their own version of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

      Are you sure it wasn't the Cardassians?

    4. Re:I felt it too. by roc97007 · · Score: 2

      Yeah, they just got their own version of Keeping up with the Kardashians.

      Are you sure it wasn't the Cardassians?

      I'm pretty sure that would be an improvement.

      --
      Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
  5. Speed Metal is love by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Speed Metal is life

    1. Re:Speed Metal is love by mekkab · · Score: 1

      as someone who saw Carcass and Obituary in Nov, and who is about to see Napalm Death (and Voivod, and Black Crown Initiate, and Ringworm, and ...)... WTF does your post have to do with anything?

      OH!

      You're saying that these intense, but short, broadcasts are examples of interstellar speed metal; a-la Napalm Death's sub-second song "You Suffer" ... ?

      then say so!

      --
      In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
    2. Re:Speed Metal is love by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

      More like Nocturnus, Thresholds -era.

  6. Clickbait by Chess_the_cat · · Score: 2

    "“In real time here means, ‘as soon as the burst radiation arrives on the Earth,’” astronomer Daniele Malesani, co-author of a new paper about the discovery, told me over email. " So, not in real time then. "Astronomers record mystery signals" isn't as exciting though is it?

    --
    Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
    1. Re:Clickbait by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Okay - how about "Radiation beam more powerful than a million suns detected heading our way"?

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:Clickbait by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 1

      It's only "more powerful than a million suns" if it's omnidirectional.

      If, like a pulsar, it's NOT omnidirectional, then it's not necessarily so powerful.

      Caveat: it's crossing 5.5 gigalightyears. It's still pretty damn powerful, even if it's not "more powerful than a million suns"....

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
    3. Re:Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Either this event was particular weak, or they were already assuming it was somewhat beamed. Previous estimates I've seen suggested 4e40 ergs if assuming isotropic, which is more like a billion times what the Sun produces in a year. And it is definitely "more powerful than a million suns" because the power of squeezing that into a millisecond adds another 10 orders of magnitude. You're not going to get beaming much for than a factor of 10^12 due to diffraction limits, so even if it was as narrow beamed as possible, it would have more power than the Sun for a moment (not that hard, the Tsar Bomba came within a factor of ten of the total luminosity of the Sun).

    4. Re:Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It was "in real time", it just wasn't live.

      In real time just means a 1:1 relationship between what's happening and what they're recording/analysing.

    5. Re:Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "“In real time here means, ‘as soon as the burst radiation arrives on the Earth,’”

      I would be more excited to see how they would record it "not in real time". To record it after its already past the earth would require some advancements in technology.

    6. Re:Clickbait by david_thornley · · Score: 2

      Really, the time and distance depend on your point of view. From the photon's point of view, it hit Earth as soon as it was emitted, meaning that the distance is zero. From our point of view, the photons were emitted 5.5 billion years ago from a point rather far away (I was going to say 5.5 billion light-years, but due to space expansion I'm not nearly as confident of that).

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  7. WTF by frovingslosh · · Score: 1, Troll

    Congratulations on this being the first time that the arriving radio waves were captured in real time. But I would be far more interested in hearing how you capture radio waves other than in real time. I wouldn't even need a DVR if I could do that.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:WTF by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you had read the article, you would know that until now, they had to sift through old data to find these things, so they couldn't ask other radio-telescopes to look at it. This time the data was analyzed in real time and triggered an alarm so other radio-telescopes could look at it in other wavelengths, etc.

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Remember when you had to wait long times for videos to buffer? What it if that was someone communicating time sensitive information, like, "Turn off the turboencabulator, it going to overheat in the next 30 seconds," or just, "Duck?"

      Some of the advances in astronomy are being made with regard to very short and quick events because of better communication between observatories and groups, giving them short notice to scopes in different bands at a target before the event is over. If a lot of time is needed to process data and identify the event, especially by a human, no other scope might have been pointed in the right part of the sky before it was over.

    3. Re:WTF by nukenerd · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This time the data was analyzed in real time and triggered an alarm so other radio-telescopes could look at it in other wavelengths, etc.

      As it (or at least the interesting bit) lasted "the span of a millisecond", those other radio-telescope operators must have acted pretty quick.

    4. Re:WTF by confused+one · · Score: 3, Informative

      In many cases they're looking for afterglow or secondary effects. When a gamma ray burst is observed, it's common to request optical telescopes to point in the direction of the burst in the hopes they'll see what caused it.

    5. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > turboencabulator

      Ignorant amateur. Couldn't possibly be the turboencabulator by the given description, this is clearly either the framistan or the rhenosort.

    6. Re:WTF by radtea · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As it (or at least the interesting bit) lasted "the span of a millisecond", those other radio-telescope operators must have acted pretty quick.

      It is likely that other processes will be longer-lived. For example, if there are optical emissions associated with the event they likely involve hot matter, which will in most reasonable scenarios take much longer then milliseconds to cool down. Gamma rays from nuclear processes will likewise have lifetimes that can be into the seconds (from intermediate beta decays.)

      There is a lot of mystery here. Collapsing neutron stars is on possibility, but getting the details right is going to be interesting. The billion light-year distance seems to come from dispersion measurements, which require that the initial pulse be much narrower than the observed pulse. Interstellar (and intergalactic) plasma slows down different radio wavelengths by slightly different amounts, so it will tend to spread out. By looking at the spread as a function of frequency it is possible to get an estimate of distance, but it depends on a lot of assumptions being correct.

      There is still a chance, albeit small, that these are closer than currently believed.

      Finally, it is worth noting that the first few detections of these things were all from the same radio telescope, and the scientific community did what we always do when something weird is seen only in one place: put on a side-bet that it was equipment malfunction, because the odds are always good on that.

      --
      Blasphemy is a human right. Blasphemophobia kills.
    7. Re:WTF by tommeke100 · · Score: 3, Informative

      When an event emits at a particular wave-length; that event probably emitted at other wavelengths as well. Since different wavelengths travel at different speeds, it's still possible to observe other data from the same event a bit later.

    8. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Im not a physicist, or an astronomer, or a mathematician - more like a lazy philosopher really - but i often find it had to believe that our calculations of distance outside the solar system have a whole lot of accuracy sometimes. (unknown known, known unknown, unknown unknowns ect). I find it hard to accept that science can just say "this radio wave came from over here, even tho we really have no idea what-so-ever what happened in between to effect our calculations". We can say 5.5b years this happened but maybe at 5.6b years there was an event that was still occurring that distorted the wave and we have no idea there was ever an event there to disrupt that wave because we're .1b years late on our observation. It just seems absurd to pretend to try and predict these kinds of things. For all we know one day we could end up at the edge of our solar system and say "shit, we've been looking out of a fish tank this whole time and with no way to measure that".

    9. Re:WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      - more like a lazy ...

      You could have even said you were a physicists or mathematician, but if you are lazy it wouldn't matter. If you were interested in actual error bars on these events, you can look up the actual papers (astrophysics by far has one of the largest amount of free access papers on places like Arxiv). If you were interested in how astronomers actually calculate and calibrate these distances, you can read a basic astronomy textbook, or one of many intro astronomy websites. It is a basic part of material that is established enough to be covered at the intro level. Plus you could look at papers on these events and see calculations of limits based on the plasma it ravelled through and the dispersion it caused in the signal.

      It just seems absurd to pretend to try and predict these kinds of things.

      It seems absurd to have such a strong opinion on things you admit to knowing so little about.

  8. Some alien on a rural planet by The+Grim+Reefer · · Score: 1

    It's just some farmer in the middle of nowhere trying to connect to the internet on their home planet. (S)He tried to save a few bucks by self installing the dish, and is sweeping the sky at full power.

  9. God farted ... by gstoddart · · Score: 0, Troll

    'Nuff said.

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
    1. Re:God farted ... by bobbied · · Score: 0

      THAT stinks.....

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  10. In "Real-Time"? by Guy+From+V · · Score: 1

    Is "real-time" the new "literally", where how much you mean it matters more than what the word actually means?

    1. Re:In "Real-Time"? by MozeeToby · · Score: 2, Informative

      What they are, admittedly awkwardly, trying to say is that the Fast Radio Burst was detected as it was happening, enabling follow up investigations to catch the immediate after effects. Previous such bursts were detected much later, too late to do any kind of follow up leading some to question if the events were even extra planetary.

    2. Re:In "Real-Time"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Real time means during the event, not after or before, but during...

    3. Re:In "Real-Time"? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or they were just trying to point out that they no longer measuring with "I Can't Believe It's Not Time!" which passes exactly like real-time but, as it turns out, is not as healthy.

    4. Re:In "Real-Time"? by frovingslosh · · Score: 0

      So you are trying to tell us that they not only recorded this thing that occurred in "the span of a millisecond" but they also understood and were able to take actions on it while it was still going on? I don't buy it, any more than I buy that the previous millisecond events were recorded after they arrived at the Earth rather than when they arrived at Earth.

      --
      I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    5. Re: In "Real-Time"? by jsh1972 · · Score: 2

      They WERE recorded when they hit the Earth; they're NOTICED until much later, while sifting through old recordings.

  11. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by thedonger · · Score: 1

    No worries ladies and gents. Just some black hole or star being absorbed into a circle of more stable vacuum than the twitchy sort of vacuum we have over here. Move along. Move along. There's literally nothing to see there.

    C'mon, there's got to be some highly implausible yet scientific sounding explanation that blames it on a time hole to the future slamming shut. Right? Maybe Elon Musk has been working on a time portal, but he hasn't quite figured out how to make it appear close enough to be usable?

    --
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  12. Signal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe a nitpick -- do slashdotters agree with calling these "signals"? There's no indication that they were emitted by someone trying to communicate.

    1. Re:Signal? by Deadstick · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Reasonable nitpick, but yes: "signal" in the signal processing context means a detected quantity whose variations may tell you something. Vibrations in the earth, detected by a seismograph, are signals.

    2. Re:Signal? by Noah+Haders · · Score: 1

      i think in the case of vibrations in the ground many of them are from man communication signals. any time there is a nuclear test or contructing something it's a signal, "working on a test!" or something imilar. evn earthquakes are a way of the earth intellgiengtly giving feedback on its current geological state.

    3. Re:Signal? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      i think in the case of vibrations in the ground many of them are from man communication signals.

      Yes, and many of them are not. Just accept the meaning of the term "signal" already! Temperature readings are signals. Air pressure readings are signals. ALL measurements are signals. Otherwise what would be meant by "signal conditioning" etc, The conditioning og other people's transmissions? Signals are just the part you are interested in, as opposed to noise. WTF kind of a debate is this?

  13. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now now, we all know vacuum stabilization events travel out from their sources at the speed of light, if it were to happen it would be against the laws of physics to see it coming.

    More interesting is one of the actual proposed explanations. A massive spinning magnetron gradually slowing down until centrifugal force can't keep it from collapsing into a black hole anymore. And when the source of the magnetic field suddenly gets cut off from the outside universe by being engulfed by the event horizon, the magnetic field has no where to go but... out. The most powerful magnetic field in the universe getting converted almost instantly to energy; creating a spark that lasts seconds and outputs more energy than the sun has in the past million years.

  14. High Power Alien Communication Beam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Our Earth's orbit just crossed a High Power Alien Communication Beam between two of their outposts. Nothing to worry about...

  15. Enough with the jock already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One thing is lasing airplanes, but... TELESCOPES!

    Come on, guys. Time to give up.

  16. I'm not saying it was aliens, but.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://cdn4.miragestudio7.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/ancient-aliens-guy.jpg

  17. FTL drive spinup by Quixadhal · · Score: 1

    Clearly, this is the signature of an FTL drive spinning up. Pity the folks using it died out 5.4999 billion years ago.

    1. Re:FTL drive spinup by HagbardMytrCeline · · Score: 1

      Clearly, this is the signature of an FTL drive spinning up. ...

      The only thing that baffles me, is how far down I had to scroll before someone came to this obvious conclusion.

      -HC

    2. Re:FTL drive spinup by killkillkill · · Score: 1

      Perhaps they just flew by us alive and well, thanks to special relativity.

  18. Only Radio, Huh? by avgjoe62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    But unlike other super-luminous events that span multiple wavelengths—gamma ray bursts or supernovae, for example—blitzars emit all that energy in a tiny band of the radio light spectrum.

    Why is this a mystery? 5.5 Billion years ago, did anyone have anything other than a radio? It wasn't like they could use a satellite dish or something...

    --

    How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?

  19. Oh so that's what a "Blitzar" is... by BadPirate · · Score: 0

    A brief energetic burst...

    Last time I heard it referenced was when I slept with a somewhat disappointed astroscience major.

    *rimshot*

    --
    - Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
  20. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

    Since I'm engaged in humorous speculation, I posit that stable vacuum events are either limited in size and scope or that they travel at less than C, or both.

    Speaking of which, does the inside of a black hole qualify as a more stable type of vacuum? Being a fairly ignorant sort, can a physics guy out there enlighten me?

    --
    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  21. Galactic Fracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If this would have been a few years back, I'd have been so gullible to say that someone was playing Galactic Marco Polo but that's just silly. Looking at humanity's recent past, one of the actions that has led to the biggest advancements in our society is that we go around using various tools to help us detect and find those natural resources that we're always looking for (as destructive or invasive to the environment and its native species as it is). What're the odds that someone else had this bright idea?

    1. Re:Galactic Fracking by slew · · Score: 1

      Or maybe say this radio signal was bait/chum and we (or perhaps our planet) are the game in someone else's sport.

      Apparently nobody has a clue about these so called FRBs, so nobody can prove us wrong ;^)

      On the other hand it appears that these signals are pulse compressed a bit by some kind of intergalactic dispersive media (electron gas?) so if someone was actually looking for some thing in the intergalactic void, this is a pretty plausible analogy to deep seismic sounding the cosmos...

  22. They had their own LHC by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    Congratulations, another civilization just won the Intergalactic Darwin Award.

  23. The graphic is just like what's in Cosmos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FWIW (not much) the image that they show is just like the monitor's display in Cosmos. Ok, and with that I think I've exhausted the number of connections between that movie and this news.

  24. Blah Blah Handwave by Greyfox · · Score: 1

    Reaper carrier signal.

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  25. Dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The FRB will be duped in approximately 2 weeks so perhaps they can decode the entire thing this time.

  26. Spectrum shift by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    How do we know the original burst was radio? Wouldn't red/blue shift affect the entire electromagnetic spectrum, not just visible light? Could these be higher energy bursts (perhaps gamma emitted from known phenomena) red-shifted by our relative space/time/vector/position? I feel ignorant asking, but if we don't know where they came from or have any fix on the source, how do we know they were emitted as "radio"?

    1. Re:Spectrum shift by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Yes, redshift affects all wavelengths equally. However, at the distance they cited, the cosmological red shift is only a factor of 3 in wavelength, which is just enough to shift visible into near-IR, while a shift from gamma to radio spectrum would need a factor of a billion. Current theories give the cosmic microwave background a redshift of around 1100, so we would not expect to see any cosmological red shifts larger than that for light, because the universe was opaque before the even that created the CMB.

      Also, in these specific cases, radio interacts with the plasma between Earth and the source, and causes the energy to disperse and spread out as different frequencies travel at slightly different speeds (e.g. a whistler wave). This effect is effectively not existent with IR and higher energy light going through the space between galaxies, but does give an idea how far the light traveled based on how much the different frequencies spreed out and what we know of densities between galaxies.

      In principle you could still get that much red shift from something falling into a black hole or something moving very fast, but there would be some more subtle issues with that.

  27. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Since I'm engaged in humorous speculation, I posit that stable vacuum events are either limited in size and scope or that they travel at less than C, or both.

    If it were a vacuum collapse into a lower energy we would be doomed, because our region would destabilize too. So, speculating, a lower vacuum cannot be the explanation.

  28. The FCC should investigate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It sounds like SOMEONE is exceeding their licensed power output not to mention transmitting outside of their licensed frequency allocation.

  29. Re:Queue the... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish they were planning on conquering us. From this, it looks like they're just trying kill us off from a distance. And people wonder why cancer rates are rising...

  30. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by Urkki · · Score: 1

    A massive spinning magnetron gradually slowing down until centrifugal force can't keep it from collapsing into a black hole anymore.

    If you te going to make that much popcorn, you probably should not use microwave owen anyway. Use a kettle, it's cheaper, tastes better, and easier to get seasoning and butter just right.

  31. LHC by Pallas+Athena · · Score: 2

    I think some far away scientist just said "don't worry, our LHC can not create a black ho..."

    1. Re:LHC by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      No. They say: 'if the LHC created black holes, so would cosmic ray impacts.'

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:LHC by Bengie · · Score: 1

      I also read that even if the LHC did create a "stable" black hole that didn't immediately evaporate, that if it fell to the center of the Earth, it would take about 10,000 years before it came in contact with other matter to consume. The Earth would die of other reasons far before the pico-blackhole was able to do any real damage.

  32. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by stevelinton · · Score: 1

    creating a spark that lasts seconds and outputs more energy than the sun has in the past million years.

    Actually it lasts only about a millisecond, but the 1 MYears of solar output part is right. It's about the mass of the moon converted to RF energy in
    1 ms.

  33. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A massive spinning magnetron gradually slowing down until centrifugal force can't keep it from collapsing into a black hole anymore.

    That would be a magnetar, not a magnetron.

  34. I wonder how they gauge the energy by ZarathustraDK · · Score: 1

    I wonder how they gauge the energy. If they simply extrapolate the energy-emission by assuming it's the same from any other angle, then it doesn't really take into account it could be a directed radio-burst.

    My logic tells me they should have already taken it into consideration, but if not it could explain the theorized super-duper-hyper-nova energy-levels, seeing as a sphere with radius 5.5 billion light years would require an enormous amount of energy to have its surface receive the measured levels of radio waves.

    --
    If you quote this signature there'll be 72 copies of Windows ME waiting for you in Heaven.
    1. Re:I wonder how they gauge the energy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For events you can't tell which way it was pointed, it is standard practice to use equivalent isotropically radiated power or energy, because it would be easy enough to apply a factor to take into account any beaming. That said, at these frequencies, even if it was concentrated as much as possible in a diffraction limited beam, it would only concentrate the power by a factor of 12 orders of magnitude, when you're dealing with something that has 16 to 20 orders of magnitude more EIRP than the Sun, so it will still be brighter than the Sun.

  35. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by fodendaf · · Score: 1

    That figure reminds me of how harold white's warp drive initially required the mass of jupiter in energy to operate. That energy output seems like it would be ideal for such an alien technology, not that I ever expect to find proof.

  36. Real time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In real time .. as opposed to?

  37. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That figure reminds me of how harold white's warp drive initially required the mass of jupiter in energy to operate.

    If you mean the Alcubierre drive, which initially required a Jupiter's mass equivalent of a exotic material not know to exist, which was reduced to a much small mass with a modification by Harold White, that is still not referring to the total energy needed. That is just the amount of matter that behaves a certain way in GR equations, and considering we don't know if it even exists, we don't know how much energy it takes to create and manipulate.

  38. Question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does this say "as much radiation as the sun does in a million years" but the article says "in a day"?

    1. Re:Question. by lazrfloyd · · Score: 1

      The motherboard.vice.com article states a million years but references the newscientist article which states a day. Looks like the summary just used the motherboard link and text. It wouldn't be slashdot if the summary was correct.

    2. Re:Question. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I haven't seen a publication for this even, others have stated energies on the order of 10^44 ergs, which is closer to what the sun produces in a billion years, although that is using assuming that the energy is emitted isotropically from the event, and it is most likely much smaller than that.

  39. Agree. by OrugTor · · Score: 1

    I use my mod points exclusively for such worthless drek. It pains me too that people are using their valuable mod points to promote unfunny badly-written typo-infested crap as "Funny".

  40. Post-Singularity by 7bit · · Score: 1

    Blitzars are the most common final stage of technological Singularities. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    When a Singularity has finally exhausted all local novelty in their system of origin and for lack of a better word become bored, they often tend to initiate a Blitzar-Epitaph. * Blitzar-Epitaphs are also often initiated in the case of detected approaching vacuum stabilization events or other impending local catastrophes.

    This is a process by which a Singularity re-engineers all matter/energy in their system including their star into a final Blitzar-Event. This Blitzar-Event is designed to maximally transmit the entirety of the Singularities pattern across the universe with the widest possible dispersion. Their pattern is compressed with an omega-class compression algorithm padded with sufficient meta-data for other singularities to be able to detect and decode.

  41. I pitty the frequency by frovingslosh · · Score: 0

    This ignorant AC actually got modded up, and for posting bad information???? In a vacuum all electromagnetic radiation travels at the same speed, you never see the speed of light listed as X for frequency F, just a single speed is ever given.

    --
    I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
    1. Re:I pitty the frequency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You said:

      In a vacuum all electromagnetic radiation travels at the same speed,

      and the post your replied to, emphasis added:

      radio interacts with the plasma between Earth and the source, and causes the energy to disperse and spread out as different frequencies travel at slightly different speeds (e.g. a whistler wave)

      Intergalactic space is not a perfect vacuum, it has a thin plasma there. Hence the light is not traveling through a perfect vacuum. The dispersion relationship for electromagnetic waves in a plasma is a calculation for an intro level course in astronomy, plasma physics, and even generic EM courses: omega^2=omega_p^2+k^2c^2, unlike the dispersion relation for vacuum: omega^2=k^2c^2. The latter gives that phase and group velocity are independent of wavelength, but the former gives a phase velocity of v_p=c/sqrt(1-omega_^2/omega^2). This has a wavelength dependence.

      At a density on the order of several atoms per cubic meter, you get a plasma frequency, omega_p, on the order of 100 Hz or so, and in the limit of large freuqnecy, v_p approaches c. So for most light traveling through such thin plasma, there is no measurable effect, but once you get down to the radio frequencies, even at several orders of magnitude above the plasma frequency, then you get a measurable effect over billions of light years.

      This effect is explicitly stated in the National Geographic link in the summary, as well as addressed in the actual publications discussing the spectrum and time evolution of these signals.

      Maybe before calling someone out for posting bad information, you should at least read something on the topic, e.g. RTFA, or at least read the actual post you're replying to closer.

    2. Re:I pitty the frequency by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Space isn't a vacuüm. The density is really staggeringly low, but at the distances involved it is still a lot of mass in the lightpath.

  42. Why not abandon this crappy moderation system? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    See what I mean? Even for a comment as innocuous as that, I still get modded down. I just don't understand why.

    It's not like I'm off topic (the parent brought up the topic, not me), trolling, or flaming anyone.

    This proves how poorly this moderation system works. It should be abandoned.

  43. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by painandgreed · · Score: 1

    Since I'm engaged in humorous speculation, I posit that stable vacuum events are either limited in size and scope or that they travel at less than C, or both.

    Great! As a physicist, I eagerly look forward to your supporting math to back up those posits which contradict the math I have already seen.

  44. They are the screams of dying stars. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Filter error Schmilter error.

  45. Break the /. rules - RTFPaper by RockDoctor · · Score: 2
    It's submitted (and accepted) to MNRAS.

    "A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up"

    It's also on Research Gate.

    --
    Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"