Alien Radio Burst from Outside the Milky Way Discovered by Scientists? Setting Trap to Catch Another

[Omaha Steve]

Source: HNGN

By Kimberly M. Aquilina

CSIRO's 64-m Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia has caught "fast radio burst" for the first time, according to a joint press release from The Royal Astronomical Society in the U.K. on behalf of CAASTRO and CAASTRO The Arc Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics. This is the first time a sharp radio flash from an unknown source has been caught live.

The first radio burst was discovered in 2007 by astronomers working on the Parkes data archive. The first burst lasted only milliseconds. Since then, there have been six more flashes that scientists believe are coming from outside our galaxy.

"These bursts were generally discovered weeks or months or even more than a decade after they happened! We're the first to catch one in real time," said Emily Petroff, a Ph.D. candidate co-supervised by CSIRO and by Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. Swinburne is a member institution of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO).

The burst was only radio - no optical, infrared, ultraviolet or X-ray follow up. "That in itself rules out some possible candidates, such as long gamma-ray bursts and nearby supernovae," said team member Mansi Kasliwal from the Carnegie Institution in Pasadena, Calif.

FULL story at link.



Read more: http://www.hngn.com/articles/61574/20150119/alien-radio-burst-outside-milky-way-discovered-scientists-setting-trap.htm

[olddots]

1. If there is intellegent life in the cosmos

Hopefully it will spread to Earth eventually .

THIS SHOULD BE HUGE NEWS ,

[mopinko]

5. that might be a clue that they arent all THAT smart.

but this is pretty cool. i hope.

[sulphurdunn]

10. Be careful what you wish for.

The Aztecs thought the return of Quetzalcoatl would be great.

[dballance]

19. Too True

Here on Earth every time a society with more advanced technology (notice I didn't say more advanced culture) met a society that it could overpower and subjugate due to that technology it has. We might become the next slave-trade victims of aliens with technology and weapons that far exceed ours.

Don't for get the great Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man."

[Liberty Belle]

39. Great episode.

after translating the title people thought the aliens were here to be our servants.

But then they translated the rest--and learned it was a cookbook!

[bluestateguy]

20. Right

I saw V and Independence Day.

[Orrex]

22. Fine documentaries.

[FLPanhandle]

21. It's sort of news

It's from a natural cause. It's a great story for media ratings and it'll be interesting to learn the cause but it's not intelligent life.

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. how do YOU know it is from a natural.cause?

[FLPanhandle]

35. Let's just say it's 99.99999% chance it's a natural source

There probably isn't enough room to put all the 9's in there for a real probability.

[FailureToCommunicate]

2. Here's the transcription of the radio message:

[librechik]

8. best joke of the 20th century Thx Steve!

and you too, Omaha Steve!

[Johnny Rash]

9. That's so, HILARIOUS!

I suspect, it could be Howard Duck, again, begging for more Chicks from Earth!

'

[Kingofalldems]

3. I wish Art Bell was still on the air.

He would give this the coverage it deserves.

[drm604]

4. Interesting.

The original press releases from the RAS and CAASTRO say nothing about it being alien, that's just spin on the part of the HNGN author.

It will likely turn out to be some known or currently unknown natural phenomenon, especially considering it's strength, but it's still intriguing.

[Sunlei]

6. It's a star flare

Kasliwal said that low-energy gamma-ray bursts, imploding neutron stars and giant flares from distant magnetars ("most magnetic stars in the universe&quot can't be ruled out

[Kablooie]

16. So star flares are trying to communicate with us? Cool!

[KingCharlemagne]

7. They were replying to Roger McGuinn's plea:

[Art_from_Ark]

40. Or maybe it was a long-lost message from Major Tom

Or maybe it was the Urban Spaceman telling us he doesn't exist

[edhopper]

11. The origin is most likely a natural phenomena

but I still gotta do it:

[img][/img]

[JohnnyRingo]

12. If it's a signal from intelligent life, they're probably gone by now.

One of the most compelling arguments I've heard against alien visitors here on Earth is that once a civilization reaches the point where it can attempt space travel it also possesses the technology to destroy itself.

At that crucial point in evolution, it's just a matter of time before they destroy their planet or each other, rendering interstellar exploration moot. Still, it's fun to entertain the notion that at least one civilization elsewhere shared our history.

Thanx for sharing. I like this stuff. I'll have to go over to Bad Astronomy and see what Phil Plait has to say.

[Exultant Democracy]

27. Decreasing frequence and density of large stars as the universe ages leads to less gamma ray bursts.

If we take life on earth as a timeline 3-4 billion years, there might be good reason to believe that there was not a significant portion of the universe that was not saturated with gamma radiation at a far higher frequency then that for the first ten billion years. It might be that 3-4 billion years is on the upper end of the curve as far as life getting a chance to develop without being blasted back into its constitute molecules and having to start over again.

Of course there are a ton of possible solution to the Fermi paradox. I am a fan of the "anyone smart enough to be noticed, is smart enough to make sure they aren't noticed, because how do you know your neighbors won't find your babies delicious after all" theory. For the vast majority of human history we had to be careful that the guy who live on the other side of the river didn't decide to eat us one day. Evolution do not as a rule reward good sportsmanship, just think about how scary other humans are, keeping our heads down on a galactic scale might not be the worst plan.

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. Interesting argument.....

and of course one of the first things we did about moon landings was to figure out a way to weaponize the advantage.

[Peace Patriot]

13. A better source for this news...

The original: http://www.caastro.org/news/2014-frb

The web site you cited--hngn.com--is full of 'celebrity' junk 'news' and intrusive ads. I hate sites like that. The actual source of this news is much more interesting: http://www.caastro.org.

Thanks for posting it, though! I would otherwise not have known about this news story--probably never would have run across it. And now I've discovered the telescope's own web site!

[Peace Patriot]

15. Oops! Here's the orginal original...

http://www.caastro.org/news/2015-livefrb

The original I cited is background news--the context for this story. The original (herein) is entitled: "Cosmic radio burst caught red-handed." Nothing about aliens. That stupidity is an artifact of a stupid 'news' site (hngn.com) which added "aliens" to the title.

[burrowowl]

37. Thanks for link!

[Demeter]

14. I'm thinking it's Goldman Sachs

the Interplanetary branch. (otherwise commonly known as the Ferengi)

[Spitfire of ATJ]

18. No, that would be us.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. Imagine the response from FOX "News" when they discover advanced civilizations don't use money.

[dembotoz]

23. says CAASTRO fox wil not mention it

[Flatulo]

24. Yeah. ApplePay makes much more sense.

[Rozlee]

25. Imagine their response if they don't have their papers.

And if they don't have sex in the preferred missionary position. Like throwing around their spores everywhere while being interviewed.

[JustFiveMoreMinutes]

28. Wouldn't it be something if the first alien transmissions we DO receive...

.... are alien porn?

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm.

[MillennialDem]

29. Maybe not the first signal, but one of them for sure. See rule 34.

[Botany]

30. I'm betting it was WLW

They have a really strong signal.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. "We've set the trap," said Petroff...

... guess who's the bait.

I got a bad feeling about this.

[A Simple Game]

34. Let's hope they aren't warnings about an intergalactic expressway or something. n/t

[Turbineguy]

36. The proof that there is intelligent life out there

is that they have not contacted us.

But then again, maybe they have their own form of the Tea Party.

[CANDO]

38. I wonder why man has an inferiority complex?

We always assume life forms from other planets/galaxies are more intelligent or advanced than us. We never consider that maybe we are vastly more intelligent/advanced than what may be out there.

[Nihil]

44. Look around at the world today ...

... and you will find vegetables that are more intelligent than most "celebrities" (or "leaders" for that matter).

Given the tendency to hero-worship that grips huge segments of the non-starving global population,
together with the nature of said chosen "heroes" (sports, politics, military, religious or merely "popular&quot ,
then it's not surprising that the more intelligent people around do *not* view our race as "advanced"
(or even "special&quot in any way.

[chrisa]

45. That's also assuming that most life on planets isn't microbial.

Of those planets that have more than microbes, many probably have animal life that can't manipulate the environment.

There are so many planets out there where life is possible, though, that there's bound to be some other form of intelligent life. The universe is so huge that they probably haven't visited us yet, or maybe have already and weren't impressed.

[Xithras]

47. We assume that life capable of CONTACTING US is probably more advanced.

It's likely that 99.99999999% of all the life in the universe is less advanced than us. It's also a given that anyone who contacts us will probably hail from that 0.00000001% Why? Because as recently as 100 years ago, we were incapable of communicating across interstellar distances. If another species is even 100 years behind us technologically, we'll never hear from them. In a 13.8 billion year old universe, a paltry 100 years may as well be a microsecond.

Mathematically, the probabilities are clear. Any species we are capable of communicating with through technological means will be more advanced than we are, and probably substantially so.

If we develop the technology to wander out into the universe and start visiting other worlds, I have little doubt that we'll find less intelligent and less evolved life. But we're not going to find them until we visit them on their home turf.

[DeSwiss]

41. K&R

[center][/center]

[undiegrinder]

42. I've always thought the whole SETI thing was a really BAD idea ...

[PeoViejo]

43. Send Help!

Only enough Beer left to last until 3rd Quarter.

[Calista241]

46. Rura Penthe...we is condemning food, things and supplies.