Monday, March 13, 2017

In Other News: Humans May Have Received A Message From Aliens and Misunderstood It

From the Independent:

Humanity might have received a message from aliens that it isn't checking, says Harvard professor
What has been seen as a quirk of space could actually be a signal of an alien probe, says Avi Loeb
Fast radio bursts, long thought to be perhaps the most mysterious message in the universe, might actually be evidence of advanced alien technology, according to Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. But researchers might not be doing enough to check whether the source of them is what Professor Loeb speculates – leakage from planet-sized transmitters that are powering interstellar probes in distance galaxies.

"Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," said theorist Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking."

Fast radio bursts are short flashes of radio emissions that are picked up on Earth, and whose source has never been identified. They were first picked up in 2007, and scientists have only detected fewer than two dozen of them since – but have noticed strange, apparently organised, patterns in how they are found....MORE