Name: Are These Signals From Aliens? | Space Mysteries | Earth Lab
Uploaded: 2022-01-05T08:20:00.000Z
Duration: 7 min 24 s
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Aliens contacting us might seem like  science fiction but now, new mysterious

signals from outer space are  intriguing scientists around the world.

This signal is so bright  that it was  completely unlike anything we'd ever seen before.

It's not crazy to think that radio    bursts could be created on another planet.

What causes them is one of  the biggest mysteries in physics.

Now linking strange signals from space with aliens   sounds a bit like something cooked up

It's the job of an astrobiologist to figure  out  where in the universe is habitable and

if possibly intelligent life could have  developed  there and then contacted us.

In fact, in 1961 pioneering astronomer Frank  Drake organised and now infamous secret

civilisations like this exist outside of our own.

So we start out with    the rate of star formation.

Multiply that by the fraction of stars    which actually have planets, habitable planets in

each system, by the fraction on which    life develops, the fraction by which intelligence appears.

Those which actually give a detectable technology.

that these civilizations   remain detectable.

N equals about 10,000 detectable  civilisations at present

Calling themselves the Order of the Dolphin,

this group of award winning scientists, set out  on the hunt for this huge number of

civilisations that they thought    could be out there.

Oh I believe very strongly  that they are out there.

We can be very very wrong and yet    there will be many many detectable civilisations.

From secret government agencies to    Nobel Prize winning scientists,

First there was the Wow signal in 1977, detected  by the Big Ear radio telescope in Ohio.

But more importantly it was detected in  something known as the Hydrogen Line.

That was significant because at the   time astronomers thought that if extraterrestrials

The astronomer Jerry Ehman was so excited that    he actually wrote the term 'Wow!' on the

Very quickly it was dismissed by astronomers  as actually coming from a comet.

Then in 2007 came a detection of what  would become the biggest mystery in physics,

something that could have been a game  changer in the search for aliens.

My student showed me this signal that was so  bright and apparently so far away that it

was completely unlike anything  we'd ever seen before.

Unless a civilisation is way more  advanced than we are.

Scientist Duncan Lorimer and his team had found    what we now call Fast Radio Bursts.

They're incredibly bright radio signals so bright    that they can't be coming from any

Quite frankly it was unlike    anything I'd ever seen before.

Yet it had all the hallmarks of a  signal that was coming from deep space.

I did think that it could be    a signal from an extra terrestrial civilisation.

so it's not crazy to think that radio  bursts could be created on another planet.

So it was a groundbreaking time for physicists    and with this new data from Lorimer the

Now the problem with the Lorimer Burst was  that it was just a one off

and how do you prove a one off is real    and not just some noise or some random signal in

Well it helped when other scientists around  the world started detecting signals just

They were coming from all over  the sky and they were clearly real.

Now although this seemed really exciting it    meant that there were probably much more

likely explanations for what was going on.

We observe binary systems of two neutron stars  that are in orbit around each other.

And when we observe these systems we see  them getting closer and closer together all

So what will happen eventually    is that they'll going to collide.

And when they merge the neutron stars will  be completely destroyed and form a blackhole.

When you look at the energetics of these  events you can easily explain the FRB

You can also explain the durations of the  FRB pulses with the expected durations of

Neutron stars are some of the  most energetic objects in the universe.

Second only to black holes and you need  something really energetic to produce a fast

Now astronomers recently have discovered a fast radio   burst coming from a magnetar in

A magnetar is a special type of neutron    star that has a very high magnetic field.

And while this is really exciting that  we finally might have an explanation,

it means that aliens producing FRBs is becoming a lot less likely.

It comes back to the point where  they could be caused by aliens.

So if I were looking for a signal  from an extraterrestrial civilisation I'd be looking

for it coming from a single point in the sky.

Here we have a population of sources all over  the sky which implies that the aliens are

all over the place, all over the universe.

So we're one step closer to solving the    mystery of fast radio bursts even though it's

looking likely that they're not the alien    signals that everyone was secretly hoping for.

We'll always keep observing the sky and I  think in our lifetimes we've got a great

chance of discovering alien life somewhere  out there in the universe.

We've done a great deal of searching in the  last 50 plus years and we've learned that

we're going to have to search perhaps    a million stars and countless frequency channels

If I had this to do all  over I would still do it.

And in fact I'd probably put more time into    it because I've come to realise that's what's

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Are These Signals From Aliens? | Space Mysteries | Earth Lab

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