SETI Talks: Mysterious Radio Signals in the Milky Way

At the end of 2021, a group of astronomers detected unusual signals from deep in the heart of the Milky Way. More recently, another group happened upon a celestial object releasing giant bursts of energy, unlike anything ever seen before. These mysterious signals, which seem natural, were discovered using recently built radio astronomy facilities, such as the Murchison Widefield Array telescope and the ASKAP radio telescope, both in Australia.

These objects are unique so far, and radio astronomers around the world are looking back in their data to see if there have been similar detections in other parts of the galaxy. Are these rare one-off events or a vast new population we never noticed before?

It’s still unclear what truly are, but it’s inevitable that within the next decade, with the arrival of the transcontinental Square Kilometer Array (SKA), more of them may be found and help astronomers to solve mysteries like their origin.

To discuss these discoveries, we invited two researchers: Tara Murphy, professor at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Sydney, and Natasha Hurley-Walker, head of the extragalactic radio astronomy group at the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, both are involved in the recent publication of these mysterious and transient signals.

Both researchers will describe the instrument used for these remarkable discoveries, some hypotheses on the nature of those signals and discuss the golden future of radio astronomy. Of course, we will discuss whether we can reject an artificial origin for those signals. Are we sure that those are not simply advanced civilizations trying to communicate with us?

Franck Marchis, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, moderated the discussion.

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#SETITalks #SETI #science #Radioastronomy #Extraterrestrial #SearchForLife #Astrobiology #CosmicOrigins #AlienCivilization #RadioSignals #Universe #Astronomy #Exoplanet #SearchForIntelligence #CosmicCommunication #Astrophysics #DrakeEquation #RadioAstronomyResearch

[davidl.callahan]

Reminds me of a saying; "The more questions you answer, the more questions you have."
Enjoyed this program, thank you.

[mindandcosmos]

A very beautiful work. In far future our descendants will probably say: " SETI research became a full-fledged branch of science in the 21st century."

[LuciFeric]

Excellent. SETI is really doing some great work. This program was so good i couldnt stop viewing. I was riveted. Fascinating. I even liked the Q and A, which i usually skip. Great presenters.

[orgbortondave]

Detailed yet easy to understand your explanation of radio astronomy. Intriguing and somewhat unnerving info. WOW. WOW.

[StephenAntKneeBk]

Very good and fascinating presentation.. Good luck to Tara Murphy and her colleagues around the world. :-) Thanks SETI.

[winfordnettles]

Jacksonville, FL USA, still listening for anything that comes our way.

[Ateam]

The radio telescope that found the WOW signal also found mysterious signals they called 'bumps in the night' from the direction of the galactic plane. Perhaps the phenomenon is related.

[allurbase]

It's nice how little intrusive is the Australian radio telescope.

[Seytom]

What a great talk! And thanks for the MOOC plug, I'm enrolled!

[upupuptheziggurat.liketysplit]

You have to be scientific with these things! The SKA mentioned, will give hopefully us a lot more latitude to search for potentially intelligent signals. I also tend to agree with the comment that any signal would, most likely, be distinct, from what we have seen so far. Either showing some form of compression in the way the signal modulates over the length of emission or otherwise being blatantly simplified, from alien mind to alien mind....;) Always good to see, Thanks guys!

[oldones]

Thanks for your prescient views, Carl Sagan.

[DavidEvans_dle]

Went to a SETI presentation at Princeton University, talked about the physics & technology involved in the search for Intelligence.

[amontesi]

Listening in from Villanueva de la Cañada, Madrid, Spain

[orgbortondave]

Have to comment again. Where ya guys been?? Love ya. GREAT info. Wispers… where ya been???

[zapfanzapfan]

So, a US military radar operator discovered a pulsar and US military satellites discovered gamma ray bursts. I wonder what discoveries they have yet to tell us about? 🙂

[dizzo]

Did you know Cosmic Radio Signals can be polarized at 91mhz (fm radio);
160mhz (vhf radio ); 610 MHz ( on channel 78 uhf-TV) by keying a CB
Microphone over a radio receiver set on these radio channels with your home equipment.
These are known cosmic radio sources from outer space, 25mhz natural

Source, 91 MHz unknown source from the Constellation Sagittarius, 160mhz

Unknown source, 440 kHz, 1440 MHz and many others from Annual Review

of Astrophysics and Astronomy 1966 editor Leo Goldberg.

Facts: A lot of the static snow that you receive is your non-cable

Uhf TV; is cosmic radio elements naturally emit

radio pulses where excited; You can polarize these signals with CB radio

Microphone by keying the transmitting CB microphone over the speaker of a

receiving radio set at 91 mhz..(91fm)..160 MHz..(160 vhf radio)..and

transmit the spacey sound you hear to a receiving TV set at channel

78 UHF you will see a ATT type of symbol..and see the

oscillations and fluctuations of the cosmic radio signal that has

been just polarized and hear strange 1960s Star Trek spacey sounds, ( I think

scientist playing around with 195s electronic equipment radio and TV made

some odd findings, like the ATT symbol ( world with stripes ) the CBS electron

gun inspired the 1950s CBS eye logo, and those 1960 Star Trek sound

effects...the odds are in our favor.we are receiving artificially generated radio

Signals...I think 91 MHz FM radio and 160 MHz VHF radio is artificially

generated...remember the old national weather radio station was at 162 MHz

VHF radio.




WOW signal

In a 1959 paper, Cornell University physicists Philip Morrison and Giuseppe Cocconi had speculated that any extraterrestrial civilization attempting to communicate via radio signals might do so using a frequency of 1420 megahertz (21-centimeter spectral line), which is naturally emitted by hydrogen, the most common element in the universe and therefore likely familiar to all technologically advanced civilizations.[4]

In 1973, after completing an extensive survey of extragalactic radio sources, Ohio State University assigned the now-defunct Ohio State University Radio Observatory (nicknamed "Big Ear") to the scientific search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), in the longest-running program of this kind in history.[5] The radio telescope was located near the Perkins Observatory on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University in Delaware, Ohio.[6][7]

By 1977, Ehman was working at the SETI project as a volunteer; his job involved analyzing by hand large amounts of data processed by an IBM 1130 computer and recorded on line printer paper. While perusing data collected on August 15 at 22:16 EDT (02:16 UTC), he spotted a series of values of signal intensity and frequency that left him and his colleagues astonished.[4] The event was later documented in technical detail by the observatory's director.[8]

[hussienelmoghrabi]

Nice video and beautiful presentations I hope to now the origin of this Rado signal comes from good luck 👍

[christiansgaard]

Cheking in from Danmark
The Space is very exiting in every Way, there is so Munch to learn for all of u’s, i hope seti is the first to Discovery life outthere, that i Think Will be a guarenty for telling the thruth to u’s all

[bernieburawski]

Any chance that the new JWST could be aimed at the location of where these signals are originating from to see if any detection of life might be found?

[spekblue]

I wonder if SETI should also be pointing their microphones at the center of the earth to listen to what`s all going on down there?