Space radio waves align in mysterious mathematical pattern

[cronus]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 48383.html

Space radio waves align in mysterious mathematical pattern

Mysterious bursts of energy coming from space align in a mathematical pattern, and so could be emanating from alien technology, according to scientists.

Blitzars, which last only about a millisecond, have been detected by telescopes since about 2001 and have been heard ten times since. And nobody really knows where they come from, or why they happen.

But a new study has found that the bursts line up in a way that is not explained by existing physics, reports the New Scientist.

Scientists tried to work out how far the bursts have travelled through space to get to us, using “dispersion measures”. That looks at how the radiowaves that are being sent get scattered as they travel through space — the higher the dispersion measure, the further that radiowaves seem to have been sent before they arrived.

All of the ten bursts that have been detected so far have dispersion measures that line up as multiples of a single number: 187.5. The chances of them doing so are 5 in 10,000, the scientists behind the study claim.

(continued, 187 worlds with nothing and 188 will split your world in two...it is a warning...)

[cronus]

[mistermack]

I don't think mathematical patterns are particularly exciting.
Stars spin at regular rates. Planets orbit in ellipses. There are lots of mathematical patterns out there.

If radio signals are coming from deep space, the source must be gigantically powerful you would think.
Which hints at a natural source of some sort.

And talking of mathematical patterns, when did 1 in 2,000 become 5 in 10,000 ? That's a bit alien.

[cronus]

I don't think mathematical patterns are particularly exciting.
Stars spin at regular rates. Planets orbit in ellipses. There are lots of mathematical patterns out there.

If radio signals are coming from deep space, the source must be gigantically powerful you would think.
Which hints at a natural source of some sort.

And talking of mathematical patterns, when did 1 in 2,000 become 5 in 10,000 ? That's a bit alien.

Seem quite trivial odds to me on a astronomic scale of things...but what do I know compared with the average statistician trying to put bread on the table?

[JimC]

Pulsars were once thought to be messages from little green men until we understood the underlying physics of rotating neutron stars...

[cronus]

Pulsars were once thought to be messages from little green men until we understood the underlying physics of rotating neutron stars...

Only have to discover little green men one time and we're likely screwed...

[pErvinalia]

The chances of them doing so are 5 in 10,000, the scientists behind the study claim.

Not 15 in 30,000?

edit: Beaten to it by MM...

[JimC]

Pulsars were once thought to be messages from little green men until we understood the underlying physics of rotating neutron stars...

Only have to discover little green men one time and we're likely screwed...

They do like probing us...

[mistermack]

I don't think mathematical patterns are particularly exciting.
Stars spin at regular rates. Planets orbit in ellipses. There are lots of mathematical patterns out there.

If radio signals are coming from deep space, the source must be gigantically powerful you would think.
Which hints at a natural source of some sort.

And talking of mathematical patterns, when did 1 in 2,000 become 5 in 10,000 ? That's a bit alien.

Seem quite trivial odds to me on a astronomic scale of things...but what do I know compared with the average statistician trying to put bread on the table?

Me too. I suspect there was a lot of guesswork that went into that ''calculation'' of the odds.

But if they can estimate the distance that radio waves came from, then they aren't talking about the whole Universe, or the whole galaxy, but the volume of space inside the radius of the furthest of the radio sources. So it wouldn't be unlimited odds. But it's still probably just a wild guess.

My own wild guess is that it could be something that has a massive event at regular intervals, that sends out huge bursts of radio waves. If it's moving at a constant velocity away from us, that would explain the regular spacing of the distances.
Or it could be that moving away from us, constantly giving out highly directional radio beam, but because of it's spin or orbit, only points our way now and then, in fixed intervals.

I suppose they could get an idea about that, by examining if the bursts come in ascending order of distance.

[cronus]

I don't think mathematical patterns are particularly exciting.
Stars spin at regular rates. Planets orbit in ellipses. There are lots of mathematical patterns out there.

If radio signals are coming from deep space, the source must be gigantically powerful you would think.
Which hints at a natural source of some sort.

And talking of mathematical patterns, when did 1 in 2,000 become 5 in 10,000 ? That's a bit alien.

Seem quite trivial odds to me on a astronomic scale of things...but what do I know compared with the average statistician trying to put bread on the table?

Me too. I suspect there was a lot of guesswork that went into that ''calculation'' of the odds.

But if they can estimate the distance that radio waves came from, then they aren't talking about the whole Universe, or the whole galaxy, but the volume of space inside the radius of the furthest of the radio sources. So it wouldn't be unlimited odds. But it's still probably just a wild guess.

The signals could be coming from somewhere closer and seem far away? a artificial source is going to behave oddly with the telescope. And twice so if it was designed that way? Imagine they are in the Kuiper belt yet want to remain invisible to us? keeping moving to fit in with distant sources? The numbers are all the same. It could be one object and changing trajectory.

[mistermack]

The signals could be coming from somewhere closer and seem far away? a artificial source is going to behave oddly with the telescope. And twice so if it was designed that way? Imagine they are in the Kuiper belt yet want to remain invisible to us? keeping moving to fit in with distant sources? The numbers are all the same. It could be one object and changing trajectory.

There is a suggestion made in the article that it could be an unknown satellite, sending some kind of encrypted information.
Not little green men though.

[JimC]

They may not be "little:

They may not be "green"

They may not be "men"

[mistermack]

They may not be "little:

They may not be "green"

They may not be "men"

Sorry. My bad.

Men/women.

Sorry. Sorry.

Or Women/men.

[JimC]

"They" is enough...

[mistermack]

"They" is enough...

No no, they ARE enough.

And I thought you was a teacher?