The title is a tad more spectacular than the actual discovery.
Very awkward spot for the science PR people writing this. It’s almost like it needs extra words to prevent people from adding
“Possible (But Definitely Non-Alien) Radio Emission From Exoplanet (Which Cannot Support Life) Detected”
Astronomers, amateur astronomers, and astronomy enthusiasts all tend to be aware of the fact that radio is just another part of the spectrum we can use to look at the universe. It’s a strange quirk of our culture that the word radio carries connotations of technology and thus connotes intelligence.
It's pretty rare for me to run into a (non-technical, niche) word I'm not at least somewhat familiar with, thanks!
anodyne (adjective): not likely to provoke dissent or offense; inoffensive, often deliberately so.
First Exoplanet Detected by Naturally Occurring Radio Emission
I suppose it is less spectacular if one makes the immediate connection "radio <-> techno-signature", but that's unwarranted and not a fault of the press release or the author, in my opinion. Jupiter's auroral emissions are mainly caused by volcano's on Io, so it's not unrealistic to think we can learn a lot about planetary mass objects (the moons) from observations like these.
> Scientists think they've detected radio emissions from an alien world
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/news/scientists-thin...
> This alien world could help us find Planet Nine in our own solar system
[1] https://www.space.com/26419-jupiter-radio-waves-alien-life.h...
How likely is it for another civilization to follow the same path? Some of our breakthrough scientific advances happened by accident. What are the odds that we missed some big new technologies because we haven't happened upon the accident yet, even though it was right here all the time?
> As such we listen for radio signals as a way of communication, because that's what we are doing.
It’s not because we expect aliens to be using radio communication or to follow the same path we did. It’s more because electromagnetic radiation is the only thing we can reasonably detect. If the aliens are communicating with gravity waves somehow, our sensors are probably not good enough to determine it. And if it’s some new physics we haven’t discovered, how would we even know what to look for? EM waves are really the only good option we have right now.
That said, it is reasonable to assume that a technologically advanced civilization is using some fashion of electromagnetic devices, which therefore generate radio waves and could be detected.
But I don’t think anyone is claiming that every technologically advanced civilization will have a detectable radio signal. It’s just the best tool we have.
And I don't even mean they could be underwater creatures etc., which is also a possibility.
Imagine Earth as we know it, inhabited by humans as we know them, but no fossil fuels (due to a different geological history), very few metal ores (making every metal as scarce as, say, platinum) - and you're stuck in an eternal stone age, possibly with more advanced social organization, but never getting beyond our ancient or medieval standards.
I don't see any reason why it's more likely for an alien civilisation to be suffering from a comparative lack of resources than it is for us to be suffering from a comparative lack of resources.
And if both types exist, we'd be more likely to hear from the ones that have resources than from the ones that don't.
Like the Ashen Lights (small glows on the unlit side) of Venus: these were theoreticized to be big fires used for agriculture or a form of celebration of the Venusian Emperor... Think about that for a second: a civilization on another planet would 1. use a slash-and-burn method of agriculture (why not hydroponics), and 2. would have a hierarchical society with an emperor (why not autonomous cells), and 3. require/facilitate celebrations of their leader(s) (why not leaderless), and 4. use possibly some evolved form of fire worship (why not water, why not nothing), and so on.
All these are Earth constructs. An alien race would likely not understand those concepts at all.
So, suppose we made contact, there would not be a common frame of reference at all, except by using mathematics, physics and chemistry and the like. Describing foundational things like numbers and carbon chemistry would be possible, but at some point that language would reach its limits. Anything abstract like "hate", or "love", or "exploring" would be impossible to describe.
Also, the technology levels of the two species would have to be close to each other. I mean, just try describing a transistor to a pet, or describing a cloud-based service to a person from the year 1700.
I'd say the chances of any kind of contact are very, very small, but still non-zero.
Maybe not likely. But for other paths, we don't know what to look for. Presumably, if there are technologically advanced alien species out there, some fraction of them followed a path involving radio signals. And that's what we know to look for.
If you’re producing radio anyway, it’s not a big leap to come up with a practical application.
I’d speculate that this terminology came from telephony or radio communications - even the term “noise” is a giveaway. But it has migrated into astronomical language in a slightly different way.
Makes me wonder if these sounds were ever remixed into music? Would certainly be an interesting concept along the lines of the German Space Night TV program.
[0] https://youtu.be/slE2i0O0pDY
[1] https://vimeo.com/173638603
[2] https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/features/halloween_soun...
[1] https://www.discogs.com/Various-The-Space-Project/release/56... [2] https://youtu.be/GksfQN1_LsM
But seriously, this went way over my head. If anyone can explain this to me like I'm 5, that would be awesome, I'm really interested in the subject but lack any real knowledge of the science.
These folks managed to pick up those types of signals, of a large planet orbiting a different star. I'm impressed that they were able to get that done.
But then there is another, better, part of me that thinks it is so awesome we live in a time when people can build a machine that listens to "sounds" made deep in a giant planet in another fricking solar system.
To the team who built that machine and shared it with us - thank you. nice one.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25464817
EDIT: Whoops, different radio emissions from a different place ! (but I'll leave this here because it's interesting anyway).
So, different to the signals from Proxima Centauri?
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/18/scientists-l...
> “There remains some uncertainty that the detected radio signal is from the planet. The need for follow-up observations is critical,” he said.
So, in the terms used in everyday life, we do not (_c.f._ we do) have an indication that the signal is from the exoplanet.
Wonder how that’s turning out.
