[HN Gopher] Astronomers have discovered a mysterious object flas...
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Astronomers have discovered a mysterious object flashing signals
from deep space
Author : gmays
Score : 59 points
Date : 2025-06-09 19:41 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.livescience.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.livescience.com)
| randomname4325 wrote:
| aliens?
| braiamp wrote:
| Most likely, a very far away pulsar.
| delichon wrote:
| Pointed at Earth by aliens.
| ataru wrote:
| Any self respecting alien would send the signal every 42
| minutes.
| NewJazz wrote:
| See ya soon and please be ready with the fish!
| unsnap_biceps wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Has anyone checked the local planning office on alpha
| centauri for vogon announcements recently?
| thrill wrote:
| After I get my towel.
| hkt wrote:
| Maybe there's more redshift than they intended!
| lostmsu wrote:
| Many aliens would have to have computed the Answer
| independently as the news from Douglas haven't reached them
| yet.
| fuzztester wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| I mean, there are humans without values. We don't have to
| go far.
| macrolime wrote:
| Pulsar with a period of rotation of 44 minutes?
| arthurcolle wrote:
| Probably a magnetar. The scales of these things make me feel a
| deep sense of existential dread
| NewJazz wrote:
| Have you read Death's End? Stop dreading and start living.
| giantg2 wrote:
| Eh, let it happen.
| lgas wrote:
| Out of curiosity, do you have any insight into why the
| existence of something large would make you feel dread?
| elorant wrote:
| Probably because a magnetar could sterilize everything in a
| radius of dozens of light years if it has hiccup.
| chasd00 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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/scie
| nce/objects/neutron_stars1...).
| libraryofbabel wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Its obviously a Slow Rotational Pulsar (SRP) - I get naming
| rights as I invented it :-)
| itishappy wrote:
| > 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.
| malux85 wrote:
| This type of emission is not directed, right? Which means it's
| not firing "at" anything, it's just emitting in all directions.
| pkdpic wrote:
| That's a good point, I didn't catch any explanation for that
| choice of wording. Wonder if it was intentional.
| ianburrell wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| 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 wrote:
| Please let it be the end.
| xqcgrek2 wrote:
| Not aliens sending signals, but some kind of interstellar
| industrial accident more likely.
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(page generated 2025-06-09 23:01 UTC)