Aliens!

[spud42]

Sci Show Space episode on it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JYGGweiAbo

[Disembodied]

There's a recent episode of Horizon called "Strange Signals from Outer Space!", which covers things like Fast Radio Bursts, and also interviews researchers at Green Bank radio telescope who are actively seeking signals from Tabby's Star. It's still available via the BBC iPlayer, for those who can access it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08r3xr3

[Cody]

holy flying spaghetti monster - we now have a 5% dip - this beats last weeks record of deepest dip detected since Kepler!!!

Go Tabby's Star!

[Disembodied]

Back in January, researchers discovered that “different colors of light are being blocked at different intensities. Therefore, whatever is passing between us and the star is not opaque, as would be expected from a planet or alien megastructure.”

The phrase “as would be expected from an alien megastructure” is worth noting … I'm not sure, myself, what would be expected from an object or objects which have been built using such monstrously advanced technology.

But it's probably just a spectacular and unusual amount of dust. Or something unusual within the star itself. Photino birds, maybe?

[Cody]

Now they've found a galaxy missing its dark matter!

[Disembodied]

More FRBs detected:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/scie ... 78011.html

Some have suggested they are being emitted by an extraterrestrial intelligence. Harvard University scientists suggested last year that they could be leaks from vast transmitters that are usually shooting at light sail ships to push them across the universe.

Although, if a species can produce momentary bursts of energy equivalent to the sun's entire output over 80 years, using it to push light-sail ships seems a bit low-tech … then again, we use nuclear fission to boil water.

[Disembodied]

The more we learn about ourselves and the universe, the more we appreciate that aliens probably won’t just be humans with longer limbs and waving antennae. How do you communicate with a planet-sized slime with ESP that eats electricity?

We’re not talking to you, we’re talking to Saturn – a review of Extraterrestrial Languages, by Daniel Oberhaus.

[Cody]

How do you communicate with a planet-sized slime with ESP that eats electricity?

Sounds like Lem's novel Solaris.

[Disembodied]

Venusians!

http://astrobiology.com/2020/09/phosphi ... -life.html

Well … phosphine - a possible biosignature - detected in the upper atmosphere of Venus. So Venusians smell a bit garlicky/rotten fish-y. The ming of Mongo, if you will.

The presence of phosphine is seen by many astrobiologists as a "biosignature" i.e. an indicator of the possible presence of life. […] From what we're told the researchers have concluded that abiotic mechanisms (i.e. ones that do not involve life) that might produce phosphine cannot account for the large amount that they have detected.

[Cody]

For sure, you can make it industrially, but there are no factories on Venus; and there are certainly no penguins.

[Commander_X]

Venusians!

http://astrobiology.com/2020/09/phosphi ... -life.html
[...]

Hah, so exciting it created a double post today on slashdot (for those interested in some skeptics' and/or enthusiasts' comments ):
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/0 ... y-suggests
https://science.slashdot.org/story/20/0 ... e-on-venus

[Disembodied]

I for one welcome our malodorous, probably microbial and still very much theoretical overlords …

[ffutures]

https://xkcd.com/2359/

[Disembodied]

“The first serious candidate since the ‘Wow!’ signal.”

Astronomers behind the most extensive search yet for alien life are investigating an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun.

The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year, the Guardian understands. Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/202 ... earby-star

[Cody]

So that's how the virus got here? The radio wave emission was picked up by a bat in China, took a few months to work its way up the food chain, and a year on, here we are! Lockdown! Am I going stir crazy? Quite possibly!