Radio signals from deep space detected

[Earl.Of.Trumps]

19 hours ago, saywhat said:

Could it be a neutron star orbiting a black hole? Hiding signals as it passes behind creating a repetitive gap in the signal? I'm a welder, clearly not an astrophysicist, just curious if that's an

I seriously doubt anything orbits a black hole.  But I could be wrong, too

[bison]

The BBC article  linked below goes into more detail about the various theories to explain Fast Radio Bursts.

To list these: 

1.) Pulsar

2.)Two neutron stars colliding

3.) A 'Blitzar' which is a neutron star that collapses in on itself, forming a black hole.

4.) A neutron star falling into an already-existing black hole

5. A collapsing blackhole, on its own.

6. Dark matter impacting a black hole.

7. Extraterrestrial technology

I've already commented, above, on the problems with this simply being a pulsar.

Theories 2 through 5 require the destruction of the objects involved, so can not explain the most interesting FRB, those that repeatedly pulse, over a short period of time.  Theory 6 requires that dark matter gather into clumps that quite frequently impact blackholes, and in sufficiently large quantities to effect extremely large discharges of energy.

Theory 7 is certainly worth consideration. It wouldn't necessary be an attempt to communicate with us, or any other intelligent species of life  in the universe. It could be the result of very large scale stellar engineering project, in service of some other goal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46825450   

[Earl.Of.Trumps]

20 minutes ago, bison said:

It could be the result of very large scale stellar engineering project, in service of some other goal.

LOL.. very large all right.  I believe ET's exist and have powers that may even seem to be magical, but I find it almost impossible to believe ET's had anything to do with this. 

[bison]

It's been discussed in scientific circles that an extraterrestrial civilization could be a billion years older than ours. Consider the progress we've made in science and technology, in the last couple of centuries. The accomplishments of a race with a billion year head start  would very probably be unimaginable to us. 

[saywhat]

5 hours ago, bison said:

The BBC article  linked below goes into more detail about the various theories to explain Fast Radio Bursts.

To list these: 

1.) Pulsar

2.)Two neutron stars colliding

3.) A 'Blitzar' which is a neutron star that collapses in on itself, forming a black hole.

4.) A neutron star falling into an already-existing black hole

5. A collapsing blackhole, on its own.

6. Dark matter impacting a black hole.

7. Extraterrestrial technology

I've already commented, above, on the problems with this simply being a pulsar.

Theories 2 through 5 require the destruction of the objects involved, so can not explain the most interesting FRB, those that repeatedly pulse, over a short period of time.  Theory 6 requires that dark matter gather into clumps that quite frequently impact blackholes, and in sufficiently large quantities to effect extremely large discharges of energy.

Theory 7 is certainly worth consideration. It wouldn't necessary be an attempt to communicate with us, or any other intelligent species of life  in the universe. It could be the result of very large scale stellar engineering project, in service of some other goal.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46825450   

Wow! Thanks for the info!

 

[Earl.Of.Trumps]

4 hours ago, bison said:

It's been discussed in scientific circles that an extraterrestrial civilization could be a billion years older than ours. Consider the progress we've made in science and technology, in the last couple of centuries. The accomplishments of a race with a billion year head start  would very probably be unimaginable to us. 

 

I agree with everything you say.  Just try to understand that the object that created this incredible energy release would be the size of a galaxy. Man made??  YIkes!

[toast]

10 hours ago, Earl.Of.Trumps said:

I seriously doubt anything orbits a black hole. 

For example, all objects in our galaxy do (even you), around Sagittarius A*.

Quote

But I could be wrong, too

Well, yes.

Edited January 12, 2019 by toast

[+Noteverythingisaconspiracy]

19 hours ago, Earl.Of.Trumps said:

I seriously doubt anything orbits a black hole.  But I could be wrong, too

It is perfectly possible to orbit a black hole. If the Sun was replaced with an equally massive black hole there would be no change in Earths orbit..... it would soon get awfully dark and cold though.

[Peter B]

5 hours ago, Noteverythingisaconspiracy said:

It is perfectly possible to orbit a black hole. If the Sun was replaced with an equally massive black hole there would be no change in Earths orbit..... it would soon get awfully dark and cold though.

Sure, it's true that anything can orbit a black hole. But would an object like this have anything orbiting it? (I don't know - I'm not an astrophysicist.)

Consider that black holes are likely created at the end of life of the most massive stars - which means stars with the shortest lives, probably measured in barely tens of millions of years. That sort of life span suggests to me they're unlikely to have time to develop anything much of a solar system. Plus, I'm guessing stars like that would have colossal solar winds, meaning they'd quickly disperse any material in the proto-planetary disc. Finally, the actual supernova explosion would make a mess of anything still hanging around. Put all that together and I wonder if the sorts of stars which form black holes are unlikely to have anything significant orbiting them.

[Anna101]

They give only enough to allow us to make up the rest in our minds instead of finding out for ourselves, together. I am very certain normal folk would have found it all out agessss ago if we had local conservatories we could go to from early childhood onwards. Oh mannnn, that would be the best..... imagine that! x

 

 

[Myles]

On 1/11/2019 at 6:58 PM, bison said:

It's been discussed in scientific circles that an extraterrestrial civilization could be a billion years older than ours. Consider the progress we've made in science and technology, in the last couple of centuries. The accomplishments of a race with a billion year head start  would very probably be unimaginable to us. 

Chances of us reaching a billion years old is very slim.  

[Robotic Jew]

9 minutes ago, Myles said:

Chances of us reaching a billion years old is very slim.  

Agreed. With the state of the world these days aiming for 100 more seems far fetched.

[SmartAZ]

I would like to know exactly how they determined that it was 1 1/2 billion light-years away. The longest measuring stick we have is the diameter of the Earth's orbit, which allows accurate measurement of things out to about 3200 light-years. Anything beyond that is a guess. A highly scientific guess, but still a guess.

[bison]

Radio impulses are frequency dispersed by interacting with gas and dust, as they travel through space. That means that some of the frequencies from a given impulse will arrive earlier than others. The greater the distance they've traveled, the greater this dispersion.

 

Knowing the amount of dispersion for relatively nearby sources, with distances arrived at by other means, and not necessarily just parallax, the distance indicated by any amount of dispersion can be calculated. Not a perfect system, of course, but it appears generally reliable. Much better than a mere guess. 

Of course, if we want to consider the possibility of these being artificial, rather than natural radio impulses, the question becomes more complicated. Frequency dispersion could conceivably be applied artificially, like a form of modulation. This could throw the distance calculations way off.

 

If most of the frequency dispersion is artificial, the sources of the radio pulses could be much nearer to us than expected. This could be helpful, in a way, as it would markedly reduce the amount of power required to send such signals. Accounting for the immense amount of power involved, if the sources are really billions of light years away, is a very big problem.