Oumuamua

[Tiki Tom]

Considering the size of the universe we live in I think it's reasonable to assume we humans aren't the only intelligent life in existence; in fact, I'm not even sure we qualify as intelligent life. And I don't know if other species' have visited our insignificant little spec of a planet, or why they would. But I think both are possible.

Agreed. But reasonable counter-arguments are also out there.

• If intelligent life is out there, why hasn't SETI picked up a signal yet? (SETI would respond that they have looked at the equivalent of one swimming pool's worth of water from the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean.)
• Life may be out there, but traveling across such vast distances is not possible according to our current understanding of how the laws of the universe work. Or, at least, it would take far too much time to be practical. (There are several rebuttals out there, but they are very speculative.)

But the recent stuff leaked from the Navy/Pentagon/NYTimes is pretty hard to simply dismiss out-of-hand. It's all very intriguing and, while I tend to agree with you, we just haven't seen any unimpeachable evidence yet, although the quantity of credible but marginal evidence is piling up to the point where you'd think that a scientific investigation is warranted. It's a mysterious universe!

Second “Interstellar Visitor,” After Oumuamua, On Its Way To Our Sun.

Thanks for posting. Only the second time in human history that we have knowingly seen such a thing. Amazing. I'll be keeping an eye on this story. Seems to be an asteroid, but I'm sure they will get a lot of interesting data from it.

Here's a frightening story: Apparently we survived a very near miss this summer. 40K miles is nothing! Missed earth by a hair's breadth. They say it was the largest space rock to come so close to earth in a century. Scary when one imagines the damage that could have been.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/danvergano/nasa-emails-asteroid-2019-ok

Ladies and Gentlemen, Until we learn more, "To Infinity and Beyond!"

 

[Zombie_61]

Agreed. But reasonable counter-arguments are also out there...

Oh, of course they are, and will be until irrefutable proof/evidence of "aliens" visiting Earth is found/revealed. I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, I'm simply sharing my thoughts on the matter.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Warp Drive? Make it so, Number One!

"In short, the Alcubierre Metric allows for Faster Than Light (FTL) travel without violating the laws of relativity in the conventional sense.

According to White, Alcubierre's theory was sound but needed some serious testing and development. Since then, he and his colleagues have been doing these very things through the Eagleworks Lab.

While the field is still in its infancy, there have been a number of recent developments that have helped. For example, the discovery of naturally occurring gravitational waves (GWSs) by LIGO scientists in 2016, which both confirmed a prediction made by Einstein a century ago and proves that the basis for the warp drive exists in nature."

https://www.sciencealert.com/how-feasible-is-a-warp-drive-here-s-the-science​

Not in my lifetime, I'm afraid.

 

[milandro]

But the more important question is, will they , on board, be wearing hats and what would they look like? Will we need to start cloning them?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Given the thousands, if not millions of light years that separate us & any possiible alien life forms, we don't yet exist for them. When they look at us through their telescopes, they see that dinosaurs still rule the earth.

 

[milandro]

well, if anyone has a telescope which would show details at such a distance they may have the technology to match.

Seriously, do they have hats? or do I need one of these?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

or do I need one of these?

Nope, you need one of these.

Buy now while stocks last.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Space… The final frontier… (well, maybe.) Yes, yes, the possibility of ALIENS is fascinating and well worth tinfoil hats and even serious investigation. But there is so much else out there that is interesting, even in our galactic neighbourhood. For example: an undiscovered giant mystery planet in our own solar system? But maybe it is actually a small black hole?? Coooool…

"Those who follow astronomy know that a scientific debate has been brewing in the past decade over the existence of so-called Planet 9, a distant, massive planet in our very own solar system. The existence of such a world has been inferred by the perturbations in Uranus and Neptunes' orbits. There's just one big problem: No one has observed Planet 9, despite being pretty sure where to look.

Now, a new scientific paper explores a very different theory: what if Planet 9 were not a planet at all, but rather a primordial black hole — a hypothetical type of small black hole that formed soon after the Big Bang, in the early Universe, as a result of density fluctuations? Such a novel idea might explain why powerful telescopes have never detected so much as a flicker from the theoretical distant, massive planet."

https://www.salon.com/2019/09/30/hypothesis-that-planet-9-is-a-black-hole-stirs-controversy/​

 

[milandro]

That’s where all the lost things that you can never find anymore go. We finally know where they are! Now, where did I leave my hat?

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Yes, yes, the possibility of ALIENS is fascinating

I think the need in the human psyche to believe in little green men, things that go bump in the night & super-hero deities is far more fascinating.

Such a novel idea might explain why powerful telescopes have never detected so much as a flicker from the theoretical distant, massive planet."

Oh, it's out there alright, getting bigger all the time feeding on the evil that men do.

 

[GHT]

Is there, I wonder, any research into the correlation of UFO sightings and political upheavals. When a government is particularly unpopular, what better way to distract the populace than to scare the crap out of them.
Did The Rivingtons inspire the naming of: "Oumuamua?"

 

[Lean'n'mean]

When a government is particularly unpopular, what better way to distract the populace than to scare the crap out of them.

 

[Tiki Tom]

If you have been following the story, starting with the New York Times article in late 1987, then this will come as no surprise. In fact we might ask “what took them so long?” The Army spokesman does a brilliant job of deadpanning the whole thing. Brilliant.

https://about.bgov.com/news/ufo-group-sharing-exotic-materials-with-army-for-combat-vehicles/

 

[Tiki Tom]

Drats. Ten million star systems scanned by radio telescopes, no hints of alien signals found.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-australian-telescope-alien-technology-million.html

 

[Zombie_61]

Drats. Ten million star systems scanned by radio telescopes, no hints of alien signals found.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-australian-telescope-alien-technology-million.html

What, with our primitive technology? That's like complaining about two cans and a piece of string not being able to pick up HBO.

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Hello, anybody there ?
https://www.businessinsider.fr/us/venus-clouds-phosphine-gas-microbes-alien-life-2020-9

 

[Lean'n'mean]

Drats. Ten million star systems scanned by radio telescopes, no hints of alien signals found.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-australian-telescope-alien-technology-million.html

And just what would alien technology look & sound like ? (presuming of course that they were as ill adapted to their world as humans are & so needed it)
It might be safer to say that no human technology has been detected in the great cosmic yonder.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

Drats. Ten million star systems scanned by radio telescopes, no hints of alien signals found.

https://phys.org/news/2020-09-australian-telescope-alien-technology-million.html

Au contraire.


Mysterious Fast Radio Burst Has Repeated On A Predicted Cycle — But Why?

“The projected turn-off date for FRB 121102 now is around August 31 – September 9, 2020,” if it stays on its previous repeating cycle.

— National Astronomy Observatory of China, Beijing

At least one Fast Radio Burst known as 121102 FRB was reported by the U. K.’s Jodrell Bank Observatory as having a puzzling, repeating 157-day-cycle. Each radio burst from FRB 121102 lasted approximately 90 days, depicted by the turquoise energy lines pulsing from outer space to the Earth radio receiving dish.

Next was silence for 67 days. After the silence came more Fast Radio Bursts for 90 days. Then silence — on and on. No one knows how or why such enormous bursts of radio energy would be emitted in a precise, cyclic and repeating pattern. That cycle was not publicly reported until 2020. Out of 100 known FRBs, 121102 and one other are the only ones known to have a cycle of energy bursts so precise that the recent bursts from 121102 FRB were right on schedule for this month. On August 17, 2020, China’s National Astronomy Observatory detected twelve new radio bursts from FRB 121102. The repeating cyclic pattern is estimated to be 157 — or 156 — days. That means the FRB should end its active bursting phase between August 31 and September 9, 2020.

Fast Radio Burst frequencies coming through 3 billion light-years of space from dwarf galaxy to Earth for 1/1000th of a second with the energy of 500 million suns like the yellow sun around which our solar system orbits. Each radio burst in turquoise lasts for approximately 90 Earth days. Illustration by Project Breakthrough.

FRB 121102 is one of only two Fast Radio Bursts that have been found to repeat so far on a predictable cycle. What is causing that cycle? Image by Rogello Bernal Andreo, DeepSkyColors.com.

Scientists now want to see if there are any bursts from FRB 121102 beyond September 9th. If that happens, then either there is no true predictable, precise pattern — or the cycle has changed for reasons unknown. Scientists still do not know what the source of Fast Radio Bursts are. But the dwarf galaxy in which FRB 121102 has kept pulsing in a seemingly repeating pattern is at least 3 billion light-years from Earth.

On April 28, 2020, alarms were triggered at astronomical observatories around the world when a half-second powerful radio signal hit. That energy source was a neutron star on the other side of the Milky Way from Earth that died 30,000 years ago. In its death struggle, the star belched out a huge mixture of radio and x-ray energy. That fast-spinning, compact core of the dead star in the constellation Vulpecula is a known “magnetar,” that appears to have been the April 28th cause of the radio and x-ray belch. Magnetars are a type of neutron star believed to have an extremely powerful magnetic field.

So, the April 28, 2020, alarms signaled the first ever observational connection between magnetars and fast radio bursts,” said Sandro Mereghetti of the National Institute for Astrophysics in Milan, Italy. But will this magnetar “SGR 1935+2154” ever repeat on the same precise 156 or 157 day cycle as FRB 121102? If not, what is the difference between the known magnetar and the 100 Fast Radio Bursts recorded to date that include the cyclic pattern of FRB 121102?

https://www.earthfiles.com/2020/08/...st-has-repeated-on-a-predicted-cycle-but-why/

 

[Tiki Tom]

^^^ Thanks for posting, HJ. I agree that Fast Radio Bursts are really interesting, and the ones that repeat according to schedule even more so. I can’t wait until they figure them out. If they figure them out. There is so much of interest “out there” right now. Fast Radio Bursts, the fact that they might have found signs of life in the atmosphere of Venus, the traces of ancient water on Mars, new planets around distant stars being discovered almost every week, asteroids whizzing by every month. Not to mention the whole new Pentagon Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force. It’s a joy to scroll through the cosmic headlines each morning.

 

[Hurricane Jack]

There is so much of interest “out there” right now. Fast Radio Bursts, the fact that they might have found signs of life in the atmosphere of Venus, the traces of ancient water on Mars, new planets around distant stars being discovered almost every week, asteroids whizzing by every month. Not to mention the whole new Pentagon Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force.

Not only the traces of ancient water on Mars but I'm fascinated by the soil there being radiated & the readings are stronger than any place on earth like Hiroshima, Nagasaki, etc. Readings that strong can't occur naturally, can they?

And I'm curious why 28 countries are now staking claims to Antarctica now that the ice is melting. Is it just to divide up the oil fields or is something else going on there?