Astronomers have discovered a mysterious object flashing signals from deep space

https://www.livescience.com/space/unlike-anything-we-have-seen-before-astronomers-discover-mysterious-object-firing-strange-signals-at-earth-every-44-minutes

68•gmays•4h ago

Comments

randomname4325•4h ago

aliens?

braiamp•4h ago

Most likely, a very far away pulsar.

delichon•2h ago

Pointed at Earth by aliens.

ataru•3h ago

Any self respecting alien would send the signal every 42 minutes.

NewJazz•3h ago

See ya soon and please be ready with the fish!

unsnap_biceps•3h ago

It says the burst lasts 2 minutes, so it would be 42 minutes of silence followed by 2 minutes of signal for a 44 minute cycle.

sieste•3h ago

Has anyone checked the local planning office on alpha centauri for vogon announcements recently?

thrill•3h ago

After I get my towel.

hkt•3h ago

Maybe there's more redshift than they intended!

lostmsu•3h ago

Many aliens would have to have computed the Answer independently as the news from Douglas haven't reached them yet.

fuzztester•2h ago

you've got to think deeper.

the concept of self respect itself may be alien to "aliens".

it's a human construct / concept.

also, stop calling them aliens. it is disrespectful.

(otherwise they might zap us with their thought cannon, compared to which light sabers are like toothpicks.)

they have as much right to be in this universe as we have. the term "alien" is a human and sci-fi construct. and sci-fi is, well, fi(ction).

call them extra terrestrial beings, or just other beings.

we need to realise that other beings can have other sets of values than we do, or even none. heck, they may not even have the concept of values. and there is nothing wrong with that.

i can go on, but I'll stop here. my other being friends are calling me for a get together.

100721•2h ago

I mean, there are humans without values. We don’t have to go far.

fuzztester•55m ago

if you mean hitler, he was an alien.

macrolime•4h ago

Pulsar with a period of rotation of 44 minutes?

arthurcolle•3h ago

Probably a magnetar. The scales of these things make me feel a deep sense of existential dread

NewJazz•3h ago

Have you read Death's End? Stop dreading and start living.

giantg2•3h ago

Eh, let it happen.

lgas•2h ago

Out of curiosity, do you have any insight into why the existence of something large would make you feel dread?

elorant•2h ago

Probably because a magnetar could sterilize everything in a radius of dozens of light years if it has hiccup.

chasd00•2h ago

aren't pulsars and magnetars very small when talking about stars and planets? Google's AI says about 20km in diameter but would need to double check that. On the other hand, IIRC the energy output of a pulsar compared to its physical size is pretty scary. You wouldn't want one in your neighborhood.

rkagerer•1h ago

Yes. Here are fact checks for those who don't trust the easy AI answer:

https://www.britannica.com/science/pulsar

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetar#Description

They are both forms of neutron stars, which average around 20km but are the densest objects known to man. Fun fact, one sugar cube of their material would weigh about as much as a mountain (https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/science/objects/neutron_stars1...).

libraryofbabel•2h ago

magnetars have got nothing on quasars, an entire galactic core with a 10 billion solar mass black hole in the middle pounding out radiation. (I'd say you'd have a whelk's chance in a supernova in one of them, but they're bigger than a supernova.)

wkat4242•2h ago

That is very very slow for a pulsar. I guess it's possible but it would be weird. Pulsars are usually in the range of milliseconds to seconds.

boznz•1h ago

Its obviously a Slow Rotational Pulsar (SRP) - I get naming rights as I invented it :-)

itishappy•2h ago

> Unlike traditional pulsars, which are produced by neutron stars and spit out radio signals every few seconds or milliseconds, LPTs emit pulses at intervals of minutes or hours apart — a period previously thought to be impossible.

Pulsar's pulse comes from their spin contorting the magnetic field lines. When they slow down, they lose energy, and at some point they don't have enough to create XRays.

m463•32m ago

I wonder if they could figure out if there were two periods, a horizontal and vertical one.

malux85•3h ago

This type of emission is not directed, right? Which means it's not firing "at" anything, it's just emitting in all directions.

pkdpic•3h ago

That's a good point, I didn't catch any explanation for that choice of wording. Wonder if it was intentional.

ianburrell•3h ago

Pulsars shoot beams out of their magnetic poles so they are directed but in a beam. Even the narrowest would be lots of stars. They are also spinning so they sweep a larger area.

somat•1h ago

My natural first question is. If it is coming out of the pole, why is it sweeping?

My guess, nothing is perfect, the rotation pole does not align exactly with the magnetic pole.

A second followup question, do stars tend to be coaxially aligned with their galaxy? it it possible to tell which way a star or pulsar is rotating?

AnimalMuppet•3h ago

This type of emission may be directed (or at least, emitted by something rotating, so directed at different locations around a circle as it rotates). That would leave it firing at Earth some of the time, and firing other places at other times.

Or, it could be something that flares up every 44 minutes, and is emitted in all directions at once. We really don't know.

bradhe•3h ago

Please let it be the end.

xqcgrek2•2h ago

Not aliens sending signals, but some kind of interstellar industrial accident more likely.

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