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Radio Burst from Space Mystifies Astronomers

today.reuters.com — It was extremely brief but very strong, and appears to have come from about 3 billion light-years away -- a light-year being the distance light travels in a year, or about 6 trillion miles.

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  • DeskFlyer, on 11/11/2007, -1/+354This is old news; happened 3 billion years ago.
    • ivandir, on 10/10/2007, -21/+4This is why I don't understand SETIs goal. They are searching for radio waves when there is no hope whatsoever of any contact with distant solar systems. We are so far away from each other that by the time we make the trip there their entire solar system will not even exist.
      • Bdog2g2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15I'm working on a subspace communicator.
      • thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -2/+16Something tells me when we have PROOF that life exists beyond our system, Sol.... It will be a major turning point in the history of mankind.
      • bjs3171, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6yeah, you're right. currently we don't have the ability to take the next step, so let's not even bother.
    • ripple123, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Least its not a dupe.
      • thcobbs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Well, wait a few billion years and then we'll find out if there's another one in the pipe.
    • wshs, on 10/10/2007, -16/+1It's radio waves, not light, so it'd be a crapton much longer. Assuming the speed of radio signals are close to the speed of sound, multiply that by about 800.000.
      • accessviolation, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7Correct me if I'm wrong here Mr. Scientist, but radio waves are electromagnetic radiation, which means they travel at the speed of light like all EM radiation does.
      • jrizzo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4radio waves are some of the invisible wavelengths of light. They travel way faster than sound. You don't have a 3 second voice delay in your phone do you?
      • whitedragon33, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Radio waves, like light, are both electromagnetic radiation, therefore they both travel at the speed of light.
        • wshs, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Thank you for being able to correct me without adding insult. At least someone here shows maturity. (I've been out of school for nearly a decade, and haven't had to touch anything related to waves and speeds thereof)
      • ubuwalker31, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4At least wshs will now knows that radio waves travel at the speed of light, for his high school physics test...
      • wshs, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Hooray, I was wrong. Are you guys incapable of correcting someone without adding insults, or is that beyond your level of maturity?
        • accessviolation, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Are you incapable of laughing off someone poking a little bit of fun at you?
    • WolfDog, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2it accually happened 3 years ago according to an Australian newspaper and they wrote it off to a computer glitch.
    • doodlebumm, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2They are probably basing the age of the message on the fact that the burst came from the direction of an object whose redshift shows it to be 3 billion light years away. It is probably from a mothership that's only a few billion miles away in line with that object. They be here next July 4th.

      Pluto's discovery was delayed by two incredible coincidences, a flaw on the film in one picture, and Pluto being in line with a star on another. We certainly don't know everything between us and the object 3 billion light years away. Unless they know the exact frequency of the original "burst", redshift calculations will be useless as well. Scientists often just make a best guess and hope that their notoriety can last long enough to make them some money before someone proves them wrong. Can you blame them? How much money is there to be made in Cosmology anyway (BTW, that's the science of the Universe, not the science of Cosmo magazine, which probably is quite lucrative).
    • omgdspmpg, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1this joke is now old. good job over-using it.
  • SaintDogbert, on 10/10/2007, -8/+177The message has been deciphered to read, "MAKE YOUR PENIS 3 INCHES LONGER!"
    • Haidoken, on 10/10/2007, -1/+16what will aliens say when they see our Enzyte commercials
      • KibibyteBrain, on 10/10/2007, -0/+14Earth's economy will suddenly revolve around making Enzyte for the rest of the cosmos. We all knew it was our race's final destiny.
    • Kizilbash, on 10/10/2007, -12/+1Hehehehe, that was funneh
  • Haidoken, on 10/10/2007, -12/+8this isn't another WOW event is it, like that signal back in the 60s or so that SETI found and never explained
    • sho222, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3is that a statement or a question?
    • subxero37, on 10/10/2007, -4/+3No. The "Wow" signal was (if I remember right) noise from an airplane passing over the radio receiving system. I could be wrong, although I remember seeing that on the History Channel.
      • plizard, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5that's what the government would have you believe
      • Murdats, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5or the wow signal was never really explained.
    • Thex1138, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Can you really do that in World of Warcraft?
  • Waiting2awake, on 10/10/2007, -13/+98It was like a thousand souls suddenly cried out, and then, silence.

    • goeatsmsht, on 10/10/2007, -3/+60If you're gonna quote Star Wars, make sure you get it right.
      "..... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened."
      • ripple123, on 10/10/2007, -1/+20Yeah getting a star wars quote wrong on digg is like putting a bleeding hand in a tank of rabid piranha. Starving rabid piranha.
    • inkyblue2, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21no, i think it sounded more like one hundred thousand people saying "whop" at the same time.
      • roodammy44, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10The people on digg can't understand your douglas adams quotes
        Brilliant book
        • iamafatguy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3"It is an important and popular fact that things are not always what they seem."
      • Insomnya3AM, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4HGTTG is made of win.
  • silverchrysalis, on 10/10/2007, -4/+52"dammit grok, quit fiddling with the dial and just leave it on the country station until we get to alpha centauri!"
  • DiggsOnlyNeoCon, on 10/10/2007, -4/+40Thanks for the light-year clarification.
  • metothemax, on 10/10/2007, -17/+3SPACE + MYstifies = myspace i cant get it out of my head
    • benartnewyork, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0i did the same thing! damn myspace....
    • PitbullRaven, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3OMG... I just... can't help it... have to say it... but shouldn't... Oh what the hell:
      Seems Kylie Minogue can't get it out of her head also.
      :D
    • bjs3171, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1why are you telling us about your erections?
  • Bdog2g2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+37Another civilization bites the dust.
  • jawdog, on 10/10/2007, -0/+100BREAKING! Scientists have deciphered the radio message. It says.... "We're coming for you Tom Cruise!!!!"
    • gopher043, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You know I could have sworn I read an article where a scientist reported that the decoded message said "We need more Reeces Pieces."
  • dupswapdrop, on 10/10/2007, -0/+72It's a ping from a galaxy far far away!
    • Storm25, on 10/10/2007, -0/+13Give me a ping, Vasily. One ping only, please.
      • cawpin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Excellent movie. I wonder, will the aliens will have fishing stories about their grandparents?
    • Fracture98, on 10/10/2007, -0/+20Man. 3 billion year ping. Halo is gunna suck.
    • noumuon, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2damn, i wonder what the ttl was on that packet...
      • basilarchia, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0It doesn't matter, it's multicast UDP. Looks like they fried their antenna trying to push through too much juice. I'm sure they'll have it up and running again in no time. The antenna's got to be the easy part on something like this.
  • oceanrain, on 10/10/2007, -18/+3After further evaluation they determined it was just a Rosie O'Donnell fart while she was flying to Israel.
  • TheInfamousOne, on 10/10/2007, -0/+22Interesting to note, that Tom Cruise is on the front page also for building a anti-alien bunker. That would teach us for doubting the Scientology nuts.
    • Dalamarx, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8guess he took his role in war of the worlds a little too seriously....
  • SouljaBoyX, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1wow... scary
  • cvanwage1, on 10/10/2007, -8/+2Did anyone else notice that according to this post light travels only 2,000 miles in an entire year. Which is less than .25 miles an hour.
  • tobybuk, on 10/10/2007, -14/+6Obviously Iran is up to no good - Bomb the ***** Rag Heads just to be sure.
  • macweirdo42, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1doorknob
  • dMinor04, on 10/10/2007, -2/+6I'm so dumb the first time i read it i thought of an actual radio. Then i moved to "the brave little toaster goes to mars". damn ADD.
  • Bleue, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4"This burst represents an entirely new astronomical phenomenon," Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University in Australia said in a statement.

    Priceless quote...
    • Fluffiness, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5Am I missing something?
      • Bleue, on 10/10/2007, -4/+2The event happened at least 3 billion years ago.

        The phenomenon had never been observed, but it's definitely not new.
  • damndj, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19We're lucky we're not all dying right now from a gamma ray burst.
    • RealmDown, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13....don't make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry.
    • Qeveren, on 10/10/2007, -3/+1Earth's atmosphere is opaque to gamma rays. A GRB would need to be within a few thousand light-years of Earth in order to do any serious harm.
  • wilhel1812, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4The aliens are coming!
    • Goombellaofgoom, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Talk about a long-term agenda...
  • kurtwinter, on 10/10/2007, -10/+2Maybe this might finally bring the God - Atheist argument down a notch. If this is a sign of intelligent life then how does it answer the multitude of questions about *intelligent* design? I would hope that those who believe in God as an omnipotent entity will finally take a step back and put him where he belongs - in the time before time, before the Big Bang, and accept that science is the best way to understand the Universe for all events after creation.
    • Bleue, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Except it's not a sign of intelligent life, no one thinks so. This is a natural phenomenon caused by some physical event. Heck even the article says so.

      Does put a crimp on those that think the universe was created by god around 6000 years ago though... But we have been observing things billions of light years away (across the entire spectrum) for an awfully long time and that does not seem to discourage them.
  • PaulGriffin, on 10/10/2007, -8/+6Its from a parallel universe, "TAZE ME SISTER!" as opposed to "Dont Taze Me Bro!" that we know in this universe.
    • omarciddo, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2*cricket cricket*
    • bolognium, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1nice try man.. i'll give you a digg..

      (just don't try stand up)
  • mseneschal, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8It's all Tom Cruise's fault.
  • jono10, on 10/10/2007, -1/+17Do they have any oil?
  • keeblerkhan, on 10/10/2007, -0/+33Viscilli, please verify range to target. One ping only.
    • cdiggy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Crap. If only we had been working more diligently on that Mars colony.
  • EruditeGoof, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Maybe it's coming from a giant monolith.
  • milkmage, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5how far is Vega from here?
  • alphonseragusa, on 10/10/2007, -0/+7To Serve Man
  • Ryan121, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7"It's much too bright. There is no way any civilization that we could possibly think of could create a thing so incredibly powerful,"

    So because you can't think of a civilization that could cause something so powerful it's not possible? These people are meant to be scientists, right?
    • Qeveren, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6The amount of energy released was roughly equivalent to the entire output of our Sun for a month. Or, if you prefer, ~240 billion teratons TNT equivalent.
      • Bdog2g2, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2and?

        The Asgard can blow up stars.
      • Machismo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1A truly interstellar civilization would probably exceed the need or abilities of stars for some of their needs. For example, if they needed a LOT of power, perhaps cause a truly MASSIVE galactic event?
        Honestly, with a sufficiently powerful civilization, the power of the sun could be like a match to them.
    • DrummerAndrew, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I was about to say that. If you can't think of something, you aren't trying hard enough. Ask any kid about it and they'll give you 200 different situations that could be. Robots that farm people, Mice with huge brains... anything.
  • ElliottMarlow, on 10/10/2007, -2/+10Dugg down for unscientific statement: "There is no way any civilization that we could possibly think of could create a thing so incredibly powerful." I'm sure we could think of one, and I'm sure they could probably exist.
    • Machismo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1A truly interstellar civilization would probably exceed the need or abilities of stars for some of their needs. For example, if they needed a LOT of power, perhaps cause a truly MASSIVE galactic event?
      Honestly, with a sufficiently powerful civilization, the power of the sun could be like a match to them.
  • radix76v2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Yeah, well, when you cannot create an intercosmic hyperspace highway without a boom here and there...
  • subxero37, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4This is weird. I just watched the movie Contact just a few days ago. Great movie, really.
    And for those saying that any radio signals received from extraterrestrial life would be useless, who knows what kind of technologies could be utilized to bring us closer to other civilizations? Maybe we'll discover that we're wrong about the fastest possible speed of information, or the fastest possible speed of moving matter or energy.
  • plizard, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3warp 1.... engage!
  • TheKidd, on 10/10/2007, -1/+19FTA: "There is no way any civilization that we could possibly think of could create a thing so incredibly powerful"

    Uhh...I'm no scientist but could it be from a civilization we HAVEN'T thought of?
  • carterbaldwin, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10Let me be the first to welcome our deeply annoying alien DJs.
  • PabloIV, on 10/10/2007, -0/+17Message Reads:
    "People of Earth this is Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz..."
  • shadowspawn, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I read somewhere that they found a picture interleaved with a video signal, something about the olympic games.
  • Thex1138, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Orson call Mork, Orson calling Mork..Na nu..Na nu
  • mahdaeng, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3FTA: [[There is no way any civilization that we could possibly think of could create a thing so incredibly powerful]]

    She's probably right. After all, if we can't imagine it, it can't be possible.
  • cuoops, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2source - http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/news/page/6128/
    http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/brightburst/
  • starexplorer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2yeah, so who here first thought 'they found life'. I about jumped out of my seat when i read the headline. Though the article is still plenty interesting, i thought there might have been an air of mystery here... was waiting for the comment from SETI
  • Seela, on 10/10/2007, -5/+1Anyone else realize that they claim this signal is from another Universe, not just another Galaxy?

    "This burst appears to have originated from the distant universe"
    • Bdog2g2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Here's the part you missed.

      from ** the** distant universe, implying this universe, just really really far.
  • Real-ity, on 11/11/2007, -0/+3Jodie Foster is on the case. The IMC will begin building the machine next week.
  • Shelter22, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2mj12 is not majestic
  • eeggum03, on 10/10/2007, -1/+4Sounds like a Bush false flag opp to me. Iran is attacking the US from space!
    • cdiggy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Those pesky Iranians and their WADs (weapons of ass destruction).
  • codehkr, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Alien iPod fanboy hooked up his iPod to the new Bose soundock.
  • Bleue, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5To those who are saying that this could be intentional as we don't know the capabilities of alien civilizations(I would reply directly but ther are 4 or 5 of you): I don't think you grasp the scale of the burst. The amount of energy released by the burst is not just large, it is difficult to imagine. If we instantly transformed every atom in the solar system into pure energy, on an impossibly small time scale (the burst, 5 miliseconds long, was subject to the usual dissipation forces of EM space propagation and therefore is much longer as observed than it was on origin), we might get something much weaker than this signal, though at least on the same scale.

    Even if we were to grant that this is possible for an alien civilization it must follow that this is certainly not practical. To create bursts like these would consume so much mass it would turn entire solar system into energy every time they make a burst.

    Most scientists are not incredibly stupid, though there are exceptions, and they do not make statements like this lightly. So yes, it's possible this is artificial in nature but this is extremely unlikely, especially given the fact that the phenomenon fits current theories for certain cosmological phnomenea very nicely.
    • Bdog2g2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"To create bursts like these would consume so much mass it would turn entire solar system into energy every time they make a burst."

      Maybe they have a spare solar system or two, you never know.
      • cdiggy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Or maybe these are rogue, axis of evil type solar systems.
  • saturnx8, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6totally the deathstar blowing up another planet
  • soot, on 10/10/2007, -0/+9Its actually pretty interesting to think that it could possibly be a transmission just reaching us now from some civilization that died out billions of years ago..
  • iwannagag, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0The burst lasted 5 milliseconds. That's really short. It hard to imagine an event so powerful lasting such a short time. Could it have been a static discharge originating much closer than 3 billion light years away? Much closer, like inside the circuitry of the detector?
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