Our universe, and I mean the known universe,
is bursting with stars and planets that revolve Around their host stars. Despite all our technological
advancements, we’ve barely explored 5% of The universe.
The rest of the 95%, remains a mystery. With the statistics of our exploration being
so miniscule, there is absolutely no way that We can say for certain, that we are alone.
And there are many who genuinely believe that We are not alone.
Some of the greatest physicists of the 20th And 21st century like Carl Sagan and Stephen
Hawking, remained hopeful for contact with Other civilizations. Harvard astrophysicist
Avi Loeb, is willing to support and offer His services in the hunt for alien civilizations.
With renowned physicists backing the study And hunt for other civilizations, we’re
no longer a society that scoffs at UFO, and U A P sightings. Recently, a team of astronomers discovered
"something unusual" while mapping out the Universe – a mysterious object sending bursts
of energy every 20 minutes. The object is around 4,000 light years away,
and although that may seem far, its energy Bursts were so big that it was one of the
largest radio sources in the sky. The burst Would happen for one minute, every 20 minutes
before it would disappear for a few hours And then repeat the cycle. "This object was appearing and disappearing
over a few hours during our observations," An astrophysicist and lead author of the study,
said in a statement. "That was completely Unexpected. It was kind of spooky for an astronomer
because there’s nothing known in the sky That does that." Is it "alien intelligence" trying to reach
out to us? Are we finally set to make the Quote-unqoute “First Contact”? Or is it
a phenomenon that has a natural explanation? Intro But what makes this object unusual is that
it doesn't behave like a transient. A slow Transient would have energy bursts that occur
over the course of a few days before disappearing For months at a time. Fast transients flash
on and off within milliseconds or seconds, So seeing one flash for up to a minute would
be unprecedented. The team does have guesses as to what it can
be, but they still aren't exactly sure. One Idea Hurley-Walker has is it could be an "ultra-long
period magnetar. Magnetars are known to emit “Fast Radio
Bursts, or, FRBs. Fast radio bursts are flashes of as yet unknown
physical origin. The majority of FRBs have Been seen only once. The one that was detected
recently, however, had multiple bursts. Researchers Believe that FRBs originate from magnetically
powered neutron stars. But, the recent discovery
Of the repeating FRBs of FRB 20200120E seems
to suggest a completely different point of Origin. Not from a young star, but rather
from an old stellar cluster, located in the Direction of the nearby galaxy M81.
An old stellar cluster is a galaxy filled With old stars. Scientists find this location
to be a highly strange one for the fast radio Bursts, as FRBs are typically located in the
zones of young stars. The high-resolution view of the extremely
energetic flash, could provide more insights As to where and why these FRBs arise. It took
12 radio telescopes working together to accomplish The research, showing how complex the nature
of the search is, and how much precision is Required to catch one of these fleeting objects
swiftly. Not only is this scenario an unlikely one,
but also increasingly bizarre for the researchers Involved who have never encountered this situation
before. Astronomers pinpointed the flash within a
set of old stars, called a globular cluster, In the galaxy M81. The galaxy is well-known
to amateur astronomers because it is extremely Bright and relatively close, being only 12
million light-years away from Earth. But the Burst’s location was a surprise finding,
as all previous FRBs were found in zones with Young stars. Such is the shock and disbelief among the
scientific community, that the astronomers Were determined to dig further for the source,
as they vehemently believed that it “had To be something else” besides the old stars
present in M81. Previous studies have suggested that we have
been looking for alien life in all the wrong Places.
Some astronomers believe that we should be Looking for intelligent life in ancient star
clusters. Ones that existed long before the formation
of Earth. Until now, many had largely discounted the
idea of finding extraterrestrial civilizations In globular clusters, which each contain thousands
to millions of stars. But the current discovery Of FRBs, could be a sign to actually seriously
consider the idea, that something or someone Does exist in these ancient stellar clusters. Globular clusters contain blobs of stars that
hover together like swarms of fireflies. The Milky Way is home to about 150 globular clusters,
which contain some of the oldest known stars — dating back 10 billion years or more.
The closely situated stars in the clusters Could offer multiple opportunities for alien
life. If a civilization is close to another star
system, “interstellar travel becomes a whole Different thing”. Civilizations could hop
from star to star, if threatened by cosmic Dangers or extinction.
This ease of travel, combined with the ancient
age of globular clusters, suggests that intelligent Life could exist in these systems for longer
than in other places. The civilization might Eventually be destroyed, but it would have
a bloody good opportunity of transferring Its members and its knowledge to another star
system. Another likely suspect for the FRB that is
not of extraterrestrial origins, is one that Arises from an event involving a stellar corpse,
also called a white dwarf. White dwarfs are Formed when low- to medium-mass stars like
our Sun, shed their layers late in their lifetime, As the stars run out of elements to fuse.
A cooling star core, known as a white dwarf, Is left behind. FRBs may occur in binary stars that include
a white dwarf and another star that has not Yet ended its normal burning cycle. It’s
possible that the white dwarf’s gravity, May pull so much mass off its companion that
the dwarf collapses under the weight of the Accumulated gas, into a kind of super-dense
city-sized star, what is known as a neutron Star. In fact, the neutron star would need to have
an ultra-strong magnetic field to accomplish The flashing feat, so astronomers are looking
for a subset of neutron stars known as magnetars. Interstellar travel, at the speed of light,
is a very difficult feat to achieve. Hence, Radio signals are our best bet for now. Who
knows, intelligent species residing on the Other side of our galaxy, or some other galaxy
altogether, may be faced with the same problem, And hence, sending out radio signals is their
best bet too? Back in 1977, a strong narrowband signal was
detected by Ohio State University’s Big Ear Telescope. The signal appeared to come from the direction
of the constellation Sagittarius, and bore The expected hallmarks of extraterrestrial
origin. Hence, it was named the Wow signal! The entire signal sequence lasted for the
full 72-second window, during which Big Ear, Was able to observe it, but has not been detected
since, despite several subsequent attempts. Many theories have been advanced on the origin
of the emission, including natural, alien, And human-made sources, but none of them adequately
explain the signal. The Wow signal remains, as of July 2022, the
strongest candidate for an extraterrestrial Radio transmission ever detected.
But now, this most recent FRB event — called FRB 20200120E – has trumped the WoW signal! Scientists now see high value in the discovery
of more repeating FRB sources, and are hopeful Of trying to get a better picture of the environments
in which they occur, using the James Webb
Or Hubble Space Telescope for follow-up observations. Cooperation between astronomers and facilities
across the globe will be crucial in demystifying This strange phenomena, but what do I know?
