Scientists Struggle To Explain Radio Bursts From Space.
Are bursts of radio noise from space aliens trying to contact us or a natural phenomenon that we don’t understand yet?
That is the question that scientists working with deep space radio telescopes are trying to answer.
The possible theories range from plausible to the utterly fantastic, including the idea that intelligent life forms are trying to get our attention.
Here is commentary on the whole issue of the unexplained radio noise from space from NPR.
Astronomers have a mystery on their hands. Two large radio telescopes, on opposite sides of the planet, have detected very brief, very powerful bursts of radio waves.
Right now, astronomers have no idea what’s causing these bursts or where they’re coming from. And nothing has been ruled out at the moment — not even the kind of outrageous claims you’d expect to see in tabloid headlines.
Australian Recordings Inspire Curiosity And Doubt
The first report of these “fast radio bursts” appeared in 2007. Duncan Lorimer and his colleagues had found the signal buried in recordings made at the Parkes radio telescope in Australia.
Lorimer argued at the time that the source of the burst came from way beyond our galaxy. But then the same telescope recorded more bursts that were similar, but clearly coming from something much closer by.
“They cast a lot of doubt on the original detection that we made,” Lorimer says; something nearby would probably have a much more pedestrian explanation.
Other astronomers began to suspect Lorimer’s extra-galactic detection was a fluke — but that changed last year, when a significant paper in Science announced the discovery of four more bursts.
That paper convinced most astronomers that something real, far away and still very mysteriouswas happening.
But there was one lingering doubt. All of the detections were made by one radio telescope, the Parkes telescope. Some astronomers wondered if the bursts might not be an astronomical event at all, but some problem with the electronics in the telescope.
But now, Lorimer says, “It’s clearly not.”
In Puerto Rico, Fresh Reports Renew Speculation
There’s a report of a burst detected at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Lorimer says several more reports of detections will soon be showing up in the scientific literature.
As you would imagine, there’s been lots of speculation about what’s behind these mysterious bursts. Some astronomers think they’re caused by blitzars, pulses of energy from a supermassive star collapsing into a black hole. Others think they may be caused by power solar flares coming from stars nearer by.
And Lorimer says he has to mention it: “There’s even been discussions in the literature about signatures from extraterrestrial civilizations.”
It’s just a theoretical paper suggesting the bursts could be generated by intelligent beings intentionally beaming a radio signal directly at Earth.
James Cordes, an astronomer at Cornell University who’s also on the hunt for an explanation of these radio bursts, says he’d bet against the possibility of extraterrestrial involvement.
Cordes says astronomers will need to find more examples of these bursts before they’ll be able to say with any certainty what’s causing them.
But finding examples will take time. The kinds of radio telescopes that can detect these bursts have what Cordes calls tunnel vision: “We don’t see the whole sky — we see just a very narrow snippet of it.”
So catching a burst in the act requires a bit of luck. That’s frustrating for astronomers, but having only a tiny bit of hard data does have its upside: Theoreticians can spin out all kinds of interesting ideas.
“The nice things about this in the current stage is that we really don’t know what these bursts are caused by,” Cordes says. “And so the sky’s the limit in some respects.”
Source: NPR
What Is Your Theory On This Radio Noise?
Is this radio noise just that? Some random burst of radio static from a dying star far off in space, or is it flashlight beaming out from an intelligent civilization looking for its deep space kin? Post your comment below with your theory on this and if we will ever find intelligent life in space by pointing our telescopes at the sky!
21 Responses
Just random noise. No coherence or message at all. Hardly amazing with all the forces in our system burbing out energy constantly. Nearly as boring as our politicians but not quite.
Did you ever stop to think What the Haystack is that?? Man you Atheists are so behind on the times
Haystack?
Hey Steve Ain’t heard a peep out of you since I left the old website
How the fizz are you?
Hey, deadeye! I’m sloshing along in the 110 degree heat that is common here this time of year. Joshua Tree is claiming its usual quota of victims. Some poor Marine’s wife disappeared and can’t be found. If the buzzards don’t start circling (literally) then we know, or strongly suspect, some other entities were involved. She won’t be the last to disappear this year as the heat is barely begining. How are thinks with you?
Have you ever heard of or personally seen a being, vaguely humanoid, that looks like it is made of the mineral obsidian? Yet another wonder to be witnessed in Joshua Tree Nat’l Monument.
Nope Never saw that But I did see a big red star in the night sky here when we took that polar vortex that hit the Eastern half of the country and man it’s been cool out here ever since then Oh sure I’ve seen the temps climb up to 90 just a couple of times but other than that it hasn’t been cold enough to make me yell it’s Fizzin cold out here but it’s good enough to keep the ticks way down
below average
Too hot here for ticks. I don’t miss them. A lot of winos here though.
Well Steve our biggest problem here is ticks but here lately I noticed that tick numbers have really fallen off in the past year I must have killed some 20’000 of the bothersome critters just this year All in May Very few in June or July and as we get that month in our rear-view mirror I know that the ticks will die-off if our winter is brutal enough Just need
15 days in March where the temps get down to 15 degrees below zero and that should do it Hope to here from you again soon Steve
Deadeye, your tick numbers have fallen off precipitously and you personally have slain some 20,000 of them? I think I see an emerging pattern here. You may be a tick urban legend by now. Keep up the good work. I haven’t slain any winos lately so I can’t match your problem solving ability. I glare at them frequently though.
No I really don’t call myself an urban legend but just four years ago I couldn’t even go outside and take 5 steps without getting 20 to 30 ticks on me so after my little dog Killer died the tick numbers really died down like scores of Japanese Soldiers at Hiroshima Harbor in 1944 BTW tomorrow marks 70 years since the American Air-force attacked that harbor 5500 Japanese Sailors soldiers and civilians lost their lives in less than 4 hours 1500 of those killed in the harbor died aboard the battleship Nagasaki 17 minutes into the attack Hope I hear from you again soon Steve
Ticks to Nagasaki? Wow, that is a huge jump! By the by, do you find those security boxes you have to decipher and copy letters into as annoying as I do?
Nope I like deciphering security boxes it’s the only thing I like doing during my free time
Helps me know what the hell is going on in the world I know Putin and Markel are thinking of supporting my country the UREA The United Republic of East America
It’s a country I’m forming and there’ll probably be a war to establish the new country
But I know like North beats South East will beat West
Now I’m really confused. The next time the aliens come and make the offer, I’m hitching a ride with them to their home planet. They want me for experiments…. hot, dark, sexual experiments.
Steve you actually want aliens experimenting on you? I recommend you watch a video on YouTube about a little boy who’s taken to an alien planet and experimented on then returned to Earth completely naked and he had a chip implanted in his right butt cheek and the military took him to a secure base and put him in a glass cage and had to scrape his skin with a Russian dagger to get it out And they kept him for a week to search the rest of him He was 12 at the time now he’s 14 and he claims that They put some sort of ID ear-tag so I really don’t think you’d want an alien experimenting on you
Too late. I have awakened to spots of blood on my pillow twice already and those incidents don’t even belong in the same class as others I have undergone with a witness. Atleast the Ebola won’t get me. Maybe.
Oh did you find that picture I told you about?
Steve this is no good BTW The military has the infected doctor under total isolation
So we don’t have to worry about him
Couldn’t find the picture and I’m not going to worry about the doctor. If it spreads, it spreads. There is nothing I can do about it.
Ok go to Pinterest.com/plea to free children from cages
ok, will do.
Hey you find my link yet Steve?