The Astronomy Thread

BrotherWu

BrotherWu

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We have already decoded their instructions and are building a primary and backup system. Jodie Foster is standing by.

Edit:

SETI is downplaying it.

http://www.seti.org/seti-institute/a-seti-signal

The chance that this is truly a signal from extraterrestrials is not terribly promising, and the discoverers themselves apparently doubt that they’ve found ET ... One particularly noteworthy thing about this discovery is the fact that the signal was apparently observed in May, 2015 (it seems that this was the only time in 39 tries that they saw this signal). The discoverers didn’t alert the SETI community to this find until now, which is not as expected. According to both practice and protocol, if a signal seems to be of deliberate and extraterrestrial origin, one of the first things to do is to get others to attempt confirming observations. That was not done in this case.
 
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Gravel

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Just googled it, didn't realize radio waves travel at the speed of light. I figured they'd move slower.

IW8simF.gif


I take back what I said then, that's ridiculously close for space.

If it is actually a civilization, it'd also mean they're close enough to probably know we're here if they're listening.
 
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Cad

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It'd be a slow ass conversation if we were able to contact them. Sent a message, wait 190 years for a reply...
 
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ShakyJake

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If it is actually a civilization, it'd also mean they're close enough to probably know we're here if they're listening.
Click to expand...

Maybe, if they have incredibly, massively sensitive antennae. Earth's first radio waves would be reaching them now. It's highly unlikely they would detect them unless they were specifically looking in our direction.
 
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khorum

khorum

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pharmakos said:
Just spent several hours reviewing explanations for the Fermi paradox.

Existence is so fucking weird.
Click to expand...

I actually think it's pretty simple: if retrocausality is possible beyond femtoscales, then at some point in the distant future someone eventually rewrites the entire causal chain of this universe. They don't even really need to time-travel per se, they just need to observe the past with a high degree of accuracy and plink a tachyon here and there they could rewrite a whole fetus's genome to whatever they want.

In other words, someone will eventually be able to affect the past, and then everything within that entity's light-cone becomes absolutely deterministic.
 
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Cad

Cad

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khorum said:
I actually think it's pretty simple: if retrocausality is possible beyond femtoscales, then at some point in the distant future someone eventually rewrites the entire causal chain of this universe. They don't even really need to time-travel per se, they just need to observe the past with a high degree of accuracy and plink a tachyon here and there they could rewrite a whole fetus's genome to whatever they want.

In other words, someone will eventually be able to affect the past, and then everything within that entity's light-cone becomes absolutely deterministic.
Click to expand...

But, do the Xeelee eventually defeat the Photino birds? They went back and genetically engineered their proto-ancestors to be more effective and still lost.
 
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khorum

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Logically simple not technically simple, hehe. The past is 14 billion years long but the future stretches to at least 2.3 trillion years until the last proton yields to entropy. The likelihood of some entity unconvering the means to retrocausal manipulation in that time isn't terribly far fetched.
 
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khorum

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Cad said:
But, do the Xeelee eventually defeat the Photino birds? They went back and genetically engineered their proto-ancestors to be more effective and still lost.
Click to expand...

They lost on purpose obviously. Probably just to effect a marginal improvement on someone's DOTA score so that his opponent quits the pro gaming scene and eventually runs for president.
 
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pharmakos

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i really doubt that meaningful time travel is scientifically possible.
 
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meStevo

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ShakyJake

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Jive Turkey

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Gravel said:
\
Not that it matters too much, as 95 light years is fucking far. So unless this is a super advanced alien civilization that is capable of traveling that fast, they're probably all extinct.
Click to expand...

Why would they be extinct? The signal is traveling at the speed of light. It would've been sent 95 years ago.

(Waiting patiently for the news it was a natural phenomenon)


edit: fuck. Already addressed :(
 
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Jive Turkey

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ShakyJake said:
Maybe, if they have incredibly, massively sensitive antennae. Earth's first radio waves would be reaching them now. It's highly unlikely they would detect them unless they were specifically looking in our direction.
Click to expand...

If Earth's radio waves would be reaching them now and they somehow discovered them right away, we can expect a reply in 95 years. "They" don't know we're here.
 
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ShakyJake

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Jive Turkey said:
If Earth's radio waves would be reaching them now and they somehow discovered them right away, we can expect a reply in 95 years. "They" don't know we're here.
Click to expand...

They do if they detected our radio transmissions. WE don't know they're there.

Marvel at my proper use of 'there', 'their', and 'they're'.
 
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Lleauaric

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Maybe they know we are here and simply don't care because they are too busy in their Orgasmatrons, or the invasion fleet is enroute and they have gone radio silence.
 
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Cad

Cad

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ShakyJake said:
They do if they detected our radio transmissions. WE don't know they're there.

Marvel at my proper use of 'there', 'their', and 'they're'.
Click to expand...

I read some credible sounding stuff that I have no basis to dispute that said the first transmissions that would have made it out of our atmosphere with any power were the VHF TV transmissions of the 40's. So, we're still a few years from them knowing we're here, if they're listening with very sensitive equipment to those particular frequencies.
 
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pharmakos

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They couldn't be responding to our transmissions if they are 95 light years away.. Our first radio broadcasts would have just reached them. We have to account for round trip travel time in that case, which means we would have had to start broadcasting strong radio signals in 1826.

Unless they have some sort of faster-than-light way to tell when a civilization discovers radio broadcast.
 
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