Intriguing little mystery from Live Science

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Apologies for last Saturday’s glitch, this has now been resolved. Tip: don’t let your downloads build up!

Ok ,as long standing readers will know, we have always been intrigued by the problem originally posed by Woody Allen: “is anybody out there, and do they have ray guns?” Which is why we notice a piece from Brandon Specktor [1] of the excellent Live Science website about a strange, repeating signal from deep space.

We never had much time for Ancient Astronauts and the Flying Saucer crowd. But one or two curious little hints from the discoveries of real astronomers have always led us to the retention of an open mind, if you will forgive us. Firstly, there was of course the famous “Wow” signal.[2] A distant second was the strange acceleration, and other features, of Ouamua. [3] The Tabby’s star controversy [4] has seemingly gone away, but we list it for completeness. Now Brandon talks about an enigmatic source near the centre of our galaxy which has been given the snappy name ASKAP J173608.2−321635. You should read the piece for yourself. But to summarise with this brief extract:

the strange signal appeared 13 times, never lasting in the sky for more than a few weeks……….. This radio source is highly variable, appearing and disappearing with no predictable schedule, and doesn’t seem to appear in any other radio telescope data prior (to August 2019)

Now, it is never clever to jump to conclusions. We remember the controversy when pulsars were first discovered, and they turned out not to be aliens at all. But there is enough here to warrant thought, and much further investigation. And that is always a good thing.

[1]https://www.livescience.com/strange-radio-source-milky-way-center

[2]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal

[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%BBOumuamua

[4]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabby%27s_Star

#livescience ##radiosignals #extraterrestials #exobiology