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Harvard: Fast radio bursts and alien life might be related

According to a new study from Harvard, the fast radio bursts coming from space could be caused by advanced alien technology. The results were published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Fast radio bursts represent a high-energy phenomenon of millisecond-long flashes of radio emission coming from an unknown source in space. They were discovered in 2007, and since that moment, 17 FRBs have been detected. Now, this investigation shows that fast radio bursts could be produced by fugues of high-technology transmitters, proving the advanced alien technology and, of course, the existence of life in space.

Radio telescopes like the Parkes Observatory in Australia have detected dozens of radio bursts since 2007. Image credit: Lisa Loves Tech.

“Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven’t identified a possible natural source with any confidence,” Said Dr. Avi Loeb from Harvard University-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, according to a press statement.

How they discovered this?

Avi Loeb and Manasvi Lingam had been thinking about the possibility of strong radio transmissions that could be perceivable across space. So, they studied both the physical and the engineering possibilities of their idea, and they found that it is possible to have a radio transmitter with those characteristics, but making that real beats our actual technology.

To have stronger transmissions, the transmitter needs to be solar-powered because solar energy over an object two times bigger than planet Earth would generate the needed energy to cross the space with a transmission. Also, they concluded that the transmitter needs to be a water-cooled device that can put up with the sun’s heat.

When talking about the possible reasons to built that thing, they said that it could be used to drive million-ton interstellar light sails. “That’s big enough to carry living passengers across interstellar or event intergalactic distances,” Said Manasvi Lingam, according to Phys. Image credit: CSIRO/ Harvard/Swinburne Astronomy Productions.

The reason of watching the flash from Earth is that the light sail’s host planet, star, and galaxy are moving relative to us, said the astronomers, and that could explain the artificial origin of the appearances of the beam. Nevertheless, Loeb said that this work is only an evidence of possible extraterrestrial life since it is a speculative work.

USB detectors

Avi Loeb has published a study suggesting that, because the hard work that finding FRB requires, the existence of detectors around the world could make the research easier. He said that they could develop a little USB device to be deployed in areas free from radio interference. It would be much easier to find FRB in less time, and it would be helpful to the studies regarding this phenomenon.

Loeb also said that it could be possible for users to download a mobile app to reach radio frequencies and then send that data automatically. This idea came from the fact that in the past fast radio bursts were in a frequency similar to that of smartphones.

An artist’s illustration of a light-sail powered by a radio beam generated on the surface of a planet. Image credit: M. Weiss/CfA.

Source: Phys

Categories: Science
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