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The Chinese now have a large telescope that is picking up mysterious signals from outer space: China's giant telescope picks up mysterious signals from deep space - Xinhua | English.news.cn. According to that link: "From late August to the beginning of September, more than 100 bursts were detected from FRB121102, the highest number of bursts ever detected so far." They also go on to say that the source of the radio waves is: "about 3 billion light years from Earth". So do not think that we will get any first hand information about the source of the signals anytime soon.
Strange, they tell us about all these 'mysterious' radio signals...but then basically tell us there is nothing to worry about, since the source is 3 billion LY away...??? Something sounds fishy to me.
I just hope they are being cautious about broadcasting too much information about ourselves or our location to deep corners of the galaxy (where we have no clue what kind of technology may be in use).
3 billion light years ... the earth was only about 1.5 billion years old when the signal left the origination point.
The article did say that astronomers from 10 countries are making plans to use their facilities. I wonder if we were invited? We haven't been getting along that good lately.
Considering how many burst of radio waves they picked up, in a relatively short time, I would presume that they will find others. Of course all of those could come from some unknown 'natural' stellar process that we simply do not understand.
Strange, they tell us about all these 'mysterious' radio signals...but then basically tell us there is nothing to worry about, since the source is 3 billion LY away...??? Something sounds fishy to me.
I just hope they are being cautious about broadcasting too much information about ourselves or our location to deep corners of the galaxy (where we have no clue what kind of technology may be in use).
What's this "fishy" thing? Are you picking on me again?
I'm not a big fan of telling the rest of the universe all about us. However; maybe we already have. I'm a big fan of Stargate SG1 and I know what is out there. Next we will have the Goa'uld, the Replicators and the Ori at our door when we really only want Thor!
Strange, they tell us about all these 'mysterious' radio signals...but then basically tell us there is nothing to worry about, since the source is 3 billion LY away...??? Something sounds fishy to me.
I just hope they are being cautious about broadcasting too much information about ourselves or our location to deep corners of the galaxy (where we have no clue what kind of technology may be in use).
As far as I can tell, neither the original article nor the Wikipedia article talks about there's nothing to worry about -- and I don't see any mention of broadcasting using the telescope in either article.
Whatever technology aliens might have, they wouldn't be able to know there's a signal in transit 3 billion LY away from them. Because a signal isn't a signal until it's detected - and anything we broadcast would travel at the speed of light. For someone to detect it and pay us a visit, they'd have to be nearby. And if that's the case, they already know we're here.
As far as I can tell, neither the original article nor the Wikipedia article talks about there's nothing to worry about -- and I don't see any mention of broadcasting using the telescope in either article.
Whatever technology aliens might have, they wouldn't be able to know there's a signal in transit 3 billion LY away from them. Because a signal isn't a signal until it's detected - and anything we broadcast would travel at the speed of light. For someone to detect it and pay us a visit, they'd have to be nearby. And if that's the case, they already know we're here.
When they mentioned how far away the signal was, and how long it took it get here, that was basically saying "no need to worry" imo.
When they mentioned how far away the signal was, and how long it took it get here, that was basically saying "no need to worry" imo.
Well, not really. They were just passing along information ... it wasn't meant to be precautionary (at least in my opinion).
If a signal left earth right now, it would be 6 billion years from now when whoever received the signal would have time to digest it, return an answer, and us to receive it. I doubt the sun (and thus the earth) lasts that long.
We've only been broadcasting radio signals for something over 100 years, so if you're worried about whoever's 3 billion light years away, there's no need to.
Actually, there's no need to worry at all. Even the closest star with planets is many light years away.
Its been said that even if we do find intelligent life signals. It would be ancient history now, some of the signals we received could be thousands or millions of years olds. Those civilizations could be extinct by now unless they are more advanced than us and moved beyond our civilization classification.
Its been said that even if we do find intelligent life signals. It would be ancient history now, some of the signals we received could be thousands or millions of years olds. Those civilizations could be extinct by now unless they are more advanced than us and moved beyond our civilization classification.
Which is the case for these signals that originated 3 billion light years away!
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