Radio signal from space repeats every hour, defying explanation
The universe is awash with strange radio signals, but astronomers have now detected a really bizarre one that repeats every hour, cycling through three different states. While they have some ideas about its origin it can’t be explained by our current understanding of physics.
Just a reminder to everyone that it's fun to hope it's aliens, but Occam's Razor suggests it isn't and the real answer is likely something naturally occurring.
That's what the article says. It seemed a little better than the usual clickbait because they got that out of the way early.
Hmm not so sure.
Hear me out. I am not actually saying it is alians. Just questioning that it is not is the logical conclusion of occams razer.
First remember we have 0 idea atm. So occams assumes the simplist explanation is correct.
But over the past couple of decades. The number of planets we have identified has grown hugly.
We only recently gained the ability to detect anything earth sized. But hav already found several.
Evidence is indication that the number of potential planets that are capable of housing life is far from low. Even if we are taking one in a million planets able. Most scientists interested in the field now agree life existing somewhere is more likely then earth being unique for some reason.
So complexity wise. Other life having evolved and developed radio. Is no more complex then some unknown answer. In fact the idea that it is impossible to be alian life is more complex then the idea that it is possible.
Once we have more information. Things will likely change quickly. And I lack the optimism to claim its likely alians.
But occams razer wise. We have evidence of life creating radio waves and transmitting them into space. As we do it a lot. Where as some totally unknown thing we have never seen up to now is a little more complex as a solution.
The simplest explanation is a new kind of star, or a new kind of star cycle.
We have seen interesting radio signals before, they have all been explained by some sort of star behaviour.
The simplest explanation is NOT the evolution of an entire other species that survives all the way through to advanced tech to send radio signals.
First rule of SETI: It can't be aliens until it can't be anything else.
Every new signal defy explanation for a little while, until it's explained.
Did we ever figure out what the WOW signal was?
Apparently not yet, astronomers are still waiting for the signal to repeat to appropriately study it.
METI president Douglas Vakoch told Die Welt that any putative SETI signal detections must be replicated for confirmation, and the lack of such replication for the Wow! signal means it has little credibility.[3
For now there are just guesses. If such burst isn't a fluke and repeats, astronomers will get a chance to better study it and provide a confident explanation.
Then they find out it's the the low battery warning on a carbon monoxide detector under the stairs of the emergency exit.
The title here is a little misleading. A signal that repeated once per hour, as in 60 minutes, would be pretty astounding, and might be a good way for a civilization with enough information about us to say 'hi' in a way we'd recognize. It would certainly be very strange to see a natural phenomenon ticking away the hours at a precise rate.
53.8 minutes, on the other hand, is a bit less attention grabbing.
I'd argue that a more precise timing like 53.8 minutes is more attention grabbing. It shows finer grained control of technology; a "look here! we can do this too!" sort of demonstration.
If we are the "more advanced" neighbor; then I could see that being done.
It's more that their knowing what an hour is would be impressive. Our selection of the hour as a measure of time is arbitrary outside of its specific context. It's just 1/24th of our planet's rotational period. We could just as easily split the day up into 10ths or 15ths or 7ths or whatever.
To broadcast a signal that's exactly an hour long to a planet that uses the hour as a measure of time might potentially imply someone trying to reference our way of measuring time. A signal that repeats every 53.8 minutes is on a timer that isn't specifically relevant to Earth in the same way an hour exactly would be.
Such a cycle is a cycle like any other. It's not "more precise" when it's shorter.
We attribute the 53.8 according to our scale.
RESPOND TO IT!
"Hello, Earth? We've been trying to get in contact with you about your local star's extended warranty..."
Do NOT let them recite their poetry to you!!!
Pulsar?
The article describes how the characteristics of this signal don't match any of the current models for neutron stars or white dwarfs. So quite possibly, but the question is how.
It’s a countdown ⏰
Jeff Goldblum Intensifies.
Personally I think the more complex pattern of having 3 different states being cycled through once an hour is significantly less likely to be natural.
That, of course, doesn't mean much by itself; it still is possible that it is natural and we just don't understand why. More research into how and why that is happening is absolutely required to answer the question. I just don't know if we will do it, or if we have the tech needed to fully investigate it yet.
when it can write out pi in a pule we will know peeps. we will know.
Well, if it's been running for a long time, it's up to some random point in pi and we missed the start. But we can still try to interpret the signal as digits, and check if this sequence appears anywhere in pi... Well what do you know, it does!
(disclaimer: it has never been proven that π has this property, but it is suspected)
never been proven
Don't worry we can check the library of babel for the answer.