Astronomers Detect 15 Atypical Signals From Distant Galaxy (www.cbc.ca)

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Astronomers Detect 15 Atypical Signals From Distant Galaxy (www.cbc.ca)

Posted by BeauHD on Friday September 1, 2017 @07:00PM from the mysteries-of-the-universe dept.

Freshly Exhumed writes: Researchers using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia have announced in the Astronomers Telegram that they have detected 15 fast radio bursts -- poorly understood phenomena that are milliseconds-long pulses of radio emission believed to be coming from rapidly spinning neutron stars or black holes in distant galaxies. Of note is their frequency range, seen to be well above typical phenomena. In particular, fast radio burst (FRB) 121102, discovered by a McGill University researcher in 2016, is the only known one to be repeating, an observation that is quite challenging for theorists and dreamers alike.

46 comments

Min score:

Reason:

Sort:

Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by grasshoppa · 2017-09-01 19:07 · Score: 0, Troll

Just read that if you pass it through a standard SSL cypher, FRB121102 actually spells something out!
Let's see...g...o...a..t..s...e...wait

--
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
1. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by ArylAkamov · 2017-09-01 19:09 · Score: 1
  
  How can terran shitposters even compete?
2. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by grasshoppa · 2017-09-01 19:12 · Score: 0
  
  Light speed's still a thing, right? Lemon Party is still ours, at least for a couple more years.
  
  --
  Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
3. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by meglon · 2017-09-01 19:51 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  d...r...i...n...k...m...o...r...e...o...v...a...l...t...i...n...e...
  
  --
  Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
4. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2017-09-01 23:27 · Score: 1
  
  "For pizza out... it's Pizza Inn!"
  (Yes, this really dates me.)
  
  --
  Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
5. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 00:28 · Score: 0
  
  Al-Qaeda in Outer Space is sending a UFO full of little green terrorists. it's true! I saw it on TV news! ae911truth dot org
6. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by ClickOnThis · 2017-09-02 06:51 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  n...e...v...e...r...g...o...n...n...a...g...i...v...e...y...o...u...u...p...
  
  --
  If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
7. Re:Newly discovered cryptographic techniques by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 23:23 · Score: 0
  
  The address of your pizza restaurant is the combination of my luggage!
I'm not saying it's aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 19:08 · Score: 0

But what else could it be?
1. Re:I'm not saying it's aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 01:55 · Score: 0
  
  Hungry aliens looking for some yummy humans to respond?
Can't be aliens by MichaelSmith · 2017-09-01 20:10 · Score: 2

Because fast radio bursts come from all over the sky and are sent from billions of light years away. Different groups of aliens would have to be sending us messages without the ability to coordinate with each other and schedule their transmissions because they are twice as far away from each other than they are from us.

--
http://michaelsmith.id.au
1. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 20:46 · Score: 0
  
  Unless we just witnessed aliens opening a wormhole so they can travel faster than light
2. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 20:55 · Score: 0
  
  Open a book, wormhole.
3. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 21:28 · Score: 0
  
  Done.
4. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 21:39 · Score: 0
  
  Because fast radio bursts come from all over the sky and are sent from billions of light years away. Different groups of aliens would have to be sending us messages without the ability to coordinate with each other and schedule their transmissions because they are twice as far away from each other than they are from us.
  What if it is the/a god(s)? Clergy would loose their shit :)
5. Re:Can't be aliens by Richard_at_work · 2017-09-01 22:19 · Score: 1
  
  It's MorningLightMountain. We are utterly screwed.
6. Re:Can't be aliens by wjcofkc · 2017-09-01 23:14 · Score: 1
  
  Who says they are trying contacting us? If it is communication, perhaps those who developed the system have evolved extreme patience. Perhaps their perception of time is different then ours. All that said, I am betting on natural phenomenon. Something dramatic. It's like Tabby's Star. While it would be really cool to verify that it is an engineering effort causing the light dips, at this point the observations are so bizarre, a natural explanation while likely turn out to be something remarkable. When it comes to the universe and our understanding of it's workings, I think we sometimes give ourselves too much credit.
  
  --
  Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
7. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 23:40 · Score: 0
  
  If it is, we are. What a great book though!
8. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 00:55 · Score: 0
  
  Because the only possible reason an alien transmission would head through our area of space is because something wants to contact us, personally. Yeah.
9. Re:Can't be aliens by hey! · 2017-09-02 01:00 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You're assuming that if we see radio bursts from point A and point B 180 degrees apart it's A and B exchanging messages. It could be one set of aliens at A communicating with another set near A, and we're just catching some stray signals. B could be another unconnected civilization; or it could be a different, natural phenomenon that emits radio bursts.
  So I don't think we can say it can't be aliens. But I think the fact we can't explain some unusual signal is weak evidence for aliens, because statistically unusual events are inevitable if you run enough trials. If you flip a coin enough times you'll get a run of a hundred heads. If you comb the entire sky with enough precision and for long enough you will find startling signals.
  If intelligent life is a natural phenomenon, looking for signals from a civilization is simply looking for a particular statistically rare event. I suspect we'll eventually find what we're looking for, but the challenge will be confirming we're looking at that particular kind of event and not some other rare event.
  The situation we're in is like being a blind man searching for a needle in a haystack. Eventually we get our finger pricked. It's exciting, but it's not anything close to proof until we've eliminated other pointy things, like thorns.
  
  --
  Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
10. Re:Can't be aliens by deathguppie · 2017-09-02 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  meh, as an avid scifi reader this one is easy to field. The aliens are using quantum communications to talk to each other. They are obviously part of a vast empire that has ruled the galaxy for eons. In this case they are sending out signals to ensnare young civilizations into responding to the messages. That way they can easily find any potential species that may later become upstarts and challenge the hegemony. Not to worry though, we are not yet sophisticated enough te even read the messages let alone respond to them. We aren't even beyond the desire to wipe our species out phase of space travel. Give it another couple hundred years and if there are any of us and/or our civilization, they may take the time to come down and enslave us. But until then we are pretty much good to go :)
  
  --
  once more into the breach
11. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 02:59 · Score: 0
  
  Oh man I love those books. And all of PfH's books tbh.
12. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 05:09 · Score: 0
  
  Since this is the only repeating one I like to think it is aliens, the repeating flash is where they are sending out 'hyperspace' probes from. We see the flash from the probe being sent and another flash where it comes out. We are unable to correlate the flashes as we are seeing the as cause effect because of the distances coupled with the FTL probes....
  Realistically it is likely some natural phenomena that will eventually be explained.
13. Re:Can't be aliens by war4peace · 2017-09-02 07:53 · Score: 1
  
  Open a hole, bookworm!
  Oh wait, that can't happen unless it's your own :)
  
  --
  ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
14. Re:Can't be aliens by DesertNomad · 2017-09-02 08:46 · Score: 1
  
  This is our chance!
  A "(hu)man in the middle" attack!
15. Re: Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 09:27 · Score: 0
  
  *lose (as in misplace) or
  loose (as in loosten/spew their bowels)?
16. Re:Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 10:07 · Score: 0
  
  Not necessarily. The signals could be signs of some technology that often co-evolves. We don't know anything about alien life, since we've had no contact. Maybe they almost always evolve very similarly to us, develop similar technology, similar ideas at the same stage of development, etc. Very unlikely, though, so I generally agree.
17. Re:Can't be aliens by Gavagai80 · 2017-09-02 10:18 · Score: 1
  
  It could be one set of aliens at A communicating with another set near A, and we're just catching some stray signals.
  The notion that a civilization capable of communicating with power so many orders of magnitude beyond ours is not capable of sending a focused beam is absurd.
  
  --
  This space intentionally left blank
18. Re:Can't be aliens by mikkig · 2017-09-02 22:16 · Score: 1
  
  If anyone thinks we are the only life in any galaxy, then you need help!
  
  --
  thank you meme
19. Re:Can't be aliens by MichaelSmith · 2017-09-02 22:37 · Score: 1
  
  Its not looking good. Our telescopes are getting better all the time but we are only seeing natural phenomena. There is no evidence of radio transmissions from other stars. Our solar system is pristine. There is no evidence of old probes, or debris left by explorers. I have been following SETI for almost 40 years now, and my gut feeling is that if there was intelligence out there we would have seen some sign of it by now.
  
  --
  http://michaelsmith.id.au
20. Re: Can't be aliens by Maven0 · 2017-09-04 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  That is what he said. "Loose their shit," as in shit themselves.
21. Re: Can't be aliens by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-05 02:03 · Score: 0
  
  That's like saying just because you can't hear any conversations in the middle of the desert in death valley, nobody is talking anywhere on the planet. We wouldn't be able to hear any reasonably conceivable radio transmitters beyond a few 10s of light years. That is a tiny fraction of what is out there. The inverse square law is a bitch.
3 billion light years away by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 20:38 · Score: 2, Insightful

These beings are 3 billion light years away, so it will take 6 billion years to have a conversation with them.
Worst alien life detection ever.
1. Re:3 billion light years away by Zontar+The+Mindless · 2017-09-01 23:38 · Score: 1
  
  Wrong. It'll take 6 billion years just to *begin* the conversation:
  THEM (3 billion years ago): Hi!
  US (now): Hi!
  THEM (3 billion years from now): So... Come to this galactic supercluster often?
  
  --
  Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
2. Re:3 billion light years away by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-01 23:59 · Score: 0
  
  Which is why we must develop general AI. If you can create an AI that is just as good at answering questions as a team of experts in all domains, then all you have to do is to send the software of this AI, and the receiving end will be getting answers to all of their questions in only 3 billion years.
3. Re:3 billion light years away by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 00:51 · Score: 0
  
  Let's hope they have good antivirus checkers.
  Or not :)
4. Re: 3 billion light years away by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 00:51 · Score: 0
  
  The only way that AI can answer all questions about our society, is if it has a database with all information about us. This database has to be transferred. So what you're suggesting is in other words to preemptively beam them a database with all info about our species, before they start asking questions.
5. Re: 3 billion light years away by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 04:10 · Score: 0
  
  to preemptively beam them a database with all info about our species
  That's what the aliens did with this FRB, but humans don't know how to decompress the data then decrypt. It looks like a single burst for humans, but those FRB was actually a compressed data of 36.85x10^43 Petabyte.
Very Short, Boring Conversation by Roger+W+Moore · 2017-09-02 01:52 · Score: 1

It's going to be a very short conversation because the sun is going to die before we get our first reply. In addition, they probably don't have much to say because their first message was directed towards some newly evolved algae.
In other news, super-secret Sputnik 2... by Anonymous Coward · 2017-09-02 03:26 · Score: 0

In other news, super-secret Sputnik 2 discovered still orbiting Earth emitting poorly understood phenomena that are milliseconds-long pulses of extremely high frequency radio emissions.
3 billion light years by stinky+wizzleteats · 2017-09-02 04:54 · Score: 1

Meaning these signals originated a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
1. Re:3 billion light years by meglon · 2017-09-02 06:23 · Score: 1
  
  Oh shit, it's Jar Jar. Quick, hide the planet!
  
  --
  Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
2. Re:3 billion light years by ClickOnThis · 2017-09-02 06:57 · Score: 1
  
  Meesa no kill your father, Luke. Meesa is your father.
  
  --
  If it weren't for deadlines, nothing would be late.
How old? by manu0601 · 2017-09-02 13:27 · Score: 1

How old is the time when the signal was sent (that is: how far is the sender)?