
Radio Bursts Traced to Faraway Galaxy, but Caller Is Probably ‘Ordinary Physics’ - dnetesn
http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/science/fast-radio-burst-galaxy.html
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sounds
Much better article: [https://www.newscientist.com/article/2117098-cosmic-
radio-bu...](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2117098-cosmic-radio-bursts-
tracked-to-home-galaxy-for-first-time/)

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rbanffy
"Ordinary" in the sense bursts strong enough to vaporize every living being
within a good couple dozen light years from the source can be called
"ordinary"

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anigbrowl
Everyone secretly wants to discover life or at least interdimensional
gateways. Natural phenomena are awesome but they just can't deliver that
existential thrill given the number we have catalogued already. The size of
your audience is inversely correlated with the complexity of the explanation
required for people to grasp the significance of your discovery.

Make a discovery like this, and if you're very lucky you might be the subject
of a biography or biopic dramatizing your valuable discovery. If you found
actual aliens or gateways to other dimensions then you'd be a legend, have
whole countries or planets named after you (if it all works out great) or be
the worst villain in history if everything goes pear-shaped. Either way, your
legacy is assured.

~~~
devoply
I hate to be the guy who discovered the aliens that conquered and enslaved our
planet. And you know if there are aliens and they are out there looking for
stuff, then they are likely not benevolent and even if they are benevolent
there is no telling how their interests align with ours, for instance A Small
Talent for War:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbT1fCHOjfI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbT1fCHOjfI)

~~~
rbanffy
What use would aliens who can conquer planets have for slaves?

The good thing is that, if you become history's worst villain, it's most
likely history will not last much longer.

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devoply
Well one reason could be that it's cheaper than producing 7 billion robots.
You know economic reasons. Not because they can't do it, it's just not cost
effective. It's much cheaper going to a planet and taking all of its
population to work your asteroid mines in that solar system. Often we do
things not because we are not capable of alternatives, but it's cheaper. So
would the aliens.

Or it could be as trivial as they enjoy eating meat, and this is a a good meat
planet. It's cheaper than farming. You just go from planet to planet for meat.
Replenish your world ship's freezers by harvesting the planet. Possibilities
are infinite, or at least similar to the size of the universe itself.

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anigbrowl
Dude, i said the person who discovered alien life, not invited it over to have
us for pizza. I'm fine with peeking at them from behind that planet until
they've made their intention clear.

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biot

      > a freak bit of random radio noise
    

Exactly what an encrypted signal would look like. It's all too likely that it
is just noise, but the only time you'd expect non-noise from a signal is when
aliens are broadcasting a public message to the universe.

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jliptzin
If it's a public message why would it be encrypted?

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biot
I think you missed the part where random radio noise is indistinguishable from
encrypted communication, so you should expect non-noise (aka unencrypted) only
in the case of a public message.

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londons_explore
A message which perfectly uses the radio channel capacity (ie. is very close
to the shannon limit) is also indistinguishable from noise to those who don't
know how to decode it.

Such a signal, we would never "guess" how to decode it, since if one could
guess and check, then that in itself is wasted capacity, and therefore not at
the shannon limit.

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Jun8
May be of interest: [http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2998](http://www.scp-
wiki.net/scp-2998)

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bmuon
What the heck did I just read? Lovecraft would be proud.

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dmix
How old would the radio signal be by the time it reaches us?

Edit: the answer was more obvious than I assumed :p, looks like our earliest
AM/FM radio broadcast 110yrs on it's way leaving the milky way
[http://www.lightyear.fm/](http://www.lightyear.fm/)

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EricBurnett
Surprisingly this is an ambiguous question to answer due to the nature of the
expanding universe, but if the statement is that "the origin is 2.5 billion
light years away" it was _probably_ transmitted 2.5 billion years ago.

[http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/104-the-
universe/c...](http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/about-us/104-the-
universe/cosmology-and-the-big-bang/expansion-of-the-universe/619-how-do-we-
define-distance-in-an-expanding-universe-intermediate)

~~~
dmix
Interesting. Looks like it was around the time the earth's atmosphere was just
beginning to populate with Oxygen. But not before there was life n earth
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Oxygenation_Event)

