Are we on the verge of first contact? - From Quark to Quasars War of the Worlds Tribute

I sighted this on my news feed coming from the science site From Quarks To Quasars and almost peed myself:

Quarks to Quasars - Are we on the verge of First Contact?

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it appears the ancient question “are we alone?” has finally been answered, and it looks like the answer is a resounding “no!”

Earlier last week, the Arecibo Observatory (a radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico) picked up some anomalous readings in the constellation Libra. Upon closer examination, the Arecibo team reported the signal was originating from approximately 9 astronomical units away. Within a few hours, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, USA, and the Allen Telescope Array in California, USA, helped to confirm the signal. Over the next 24 hours, telescopes from all over the world had confirmed the signal’s origin.

Dr. Ellen Strominger, one of the scientists from the Arecibo Observatory, said: “The signal is unlike anything we’ve seen before. It’s much stronger and is better organized than the regular background noise, both of interstellar and terrestrial origin, we hear. It’s even more organized than pulsars. It’s just very exciting.”

Since the signal originated near the vicinity of Saturn, NASA worked quickly to reorient the Cassini spacecraft, which was fortunate enough to snap a picture of the object (seen on the right).

Further observations showed the object traveling about 6-billion kilometers per hour (over 3.7 million mph) – averaging about 1 AU a day. Scientists studying the object have taken to calling it “T’Plana-Hath”, after the Vulcan ship responsible for making first contact with humans in the Star Trek universe.

On Sunday, at 5:33am UTC, the object stopped just within the orbit of the moon. Currently, other than the noise originally heard emanating from the object, no new developments have occurred. Thus far, it doesn’t appear to have attempted direct communication with the Earth.

Some of the latest pictures of the object can be seen below.

Needless to say, we will keep you apprised as we watch this monumental event unfold.

DON'T GET EXCITED
The site From Quarks to Quasars authored the above as a Halloween Tribute to War of the Worlds, and it's complete fiction.

Further, they posted this:

Update: Happy Halloween! This article was brought to you in the spirit of the holiday by From Quarks to Quasars. I hope you had as much fun reading this hypothetical scenario as I did writing it.

So, it was a bit of fun at our expense for those of us that saw it, and I can change into some new undergarments now.



I'm posting this as an awareness flag, hopefully ahead of time before someone else also sees the story, but only reads part of it and mistakes it for real, which would be an honest mistake considering the source coming from a science blog not usually or typically given to any sorts of flights of fancy.

Note again; the above story is NOT REAL.
The Science Blog From Quarks To Quasars was trolling its readers as a Halloween Tribute to War of the Worlds.

*sigh*

EDIT:
What would your reaction have been had this been an actual event?

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


To be honest, I cannot even think about how I would have reacted had this been real, such is my dismay that someone thought this would be an appropriate way to amuse readers during the holidays. There is more than enough reference to the subject of UFO and aliens, as nothing more than entertainment, and I expect better than this from publications which have a focus on science and learning.

That said I suppose I should not be shocked, since everything revolves around thrice cursed profit these days.

I stopped reading when so much of the science was wrong. Arecibo doesn't do SETI anymore (other than feed data to SETI @ Home).

Here's a question for the original poster? Why post an obvious Halloween stunt?

reply to post by JadeStarShe probably posted it so we got a kick out of as she did. I enjoyed the read it beats half the stuff on the board now that only deals with Obamacare. It was a nice change good job. SnF

You just burst my bubble! I read all of it until I got to the next bit of it...ah well, we can just dream I suppose

reply to post by JadeStar


As I stated before, at the bottom, were anyone to take the time to read the whole thing, including my commentary, I'm posting it before someone that actually DOES think it real and am posting it as an awareness piece.

I post it also as an example that not everything one reads on the internet is true, and anything fantastic such as this (before the updated disclaimer was posted) should be exampled as fair reason to take a few breaths, check some facts, corroborate the story with other sources, verify the claims, and THEN post, otherwise, one might find they've fallen for some trolling.

It's a little bit of a PSA (Public Service Announcement).

As far as Seti vs. Seti@home goes, I'm sure there's perfectly rational but untutored folk that might not know the distinction, where some might just see what equates to them as sciency talk and take such to equate validity without actually going the lengths in practicing the due diligence of corroboration and verification from various and sundry other sources.

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite

I post it also as an example that not everything one reads on the internet is true, and anything fantastic such as this (before the updated disclaimer was posted) should be exampled as fair reason to take a few breaths, check some facts, corroborate the story with other sources, verify the claims, and THEN post, otherwise, one might find they've fallen for some trolling.

I'll troll that. Scientists will never "make contact" with anything out there. If life exists in the Universe and it has been there forever, then the ether should be full of commo. Since we aren't picking that up it should be obvious they are communicating in a spectrum we are unaware of yet.

They might as well be listening for radio signals with a Conch shell.

reply to post by AliceBleachWhite


Great article & post - well done!

Definitely makes you think.

And that deserves an S&F...

ed1320
reply to post by JadeStarShe probably posted it so we got a kick out of as she did. I enjoyed the read it beats half the stuff on the board now that only deals with Obamacare. It was a nice change good job. SnF

 

Well in that context, it's cool. Anything to break the steady drumbeat is fine with me.

AliceBleachWhite
reply to post by JadeStar

 

I post it also as an example that not everything one reads on the internet is true, and anything fantastic such as this (before the updated disclaimer was posted) should be exampled as fair reason to take a few breaths, check some facts, corroborate the story with other sources, verify the claims, and THEN post, otherwise, one might find they've fallen for some trolling.

It's a little bit of a PSA (Public Service Announcement).

Well in that case, I should have applauded you Thanks for that. As a newbie, its good to have like-minded company here.

As far as Seti vs. Seti@home goes, I'm sure there's perfectly rational but untutored folk that might not know the distinction, where some might just see what equates to them as sciency talk and take such to equate validity without actually going the lengths in practicing the due diligence of corroboration and verification from various and sundry other sources.

Yep. It reminded me of the whole Richard Hoagland "EQ Pegasi" hoax. That one even fooled the BBC remember?

news.bbc.co.uk...

The scientific world is buzzing with the suggestion that signals from aliens living in another star system may have been picked up by a part-time astronomer. […] It could either be the most important discovery ever made, or more likely, a case of mistaken identity or an elaborate hoax.

The "I Want to Believe" poster on Fox Mulders wall should adorn the rooms of most of us as a cautionary reminder lol

JadeStar

The "I Want to Believe" poster on Fox Mulders wall should adorn the rooms of most of us as a cautionary reminder lol

I want to believe? I have one better:

Crap like this needs to be moved to the HOAX bin
I'm tired of the fake stories posted as REAL without a disclaimer in the subject line or BEFORE going into the news article

intrptr
reply to post by AliceBleachWhite

 

I post it also as an example that not everything one reads on the internet is true, and anything fantastic such as this (before the updated disclaimer was posted) should be exampled as fair reason to take a few breaths, check some facts, corroborate the story with other sources, verify the claims, and THEN post, otherwise, one might find they've fallen for some trolling.

I'll troll that. Scientists will never "make contact" with anything out there. If life exists in the Universe and it has been there forever, then the ether should be full of commo. Since we aren't picking that up it should be obvious they are communicating in a spectrum we are unaware of yet.

They might as well be listening for radio signals with a Conch shell.

Love your last line...

You might have a good point. But that doesn't mean we should stop looking & listening. Maybe they "all" aren't using the super-secret new & advanced comms tech. Or maybe a stray signal from one of their "homes" to one of their robotic lawn-mowers or something still uses the "old tech".

Or maybe some civ will decide to break "radio-silence" and contact us at some point.

Or maybe we're really all alone...

But as Jodie Foster says in Cosmos - if that were true "it seems like an awful waste of space".

HomerinNC
Crap like this needs to be moved to the HOAX bin
I'm tired of the fake stories posted as REAL without a disclaimer in the subject line or BEFORE going into the news article

Did someone miss the part in the title that said "War of the Worlds Tribute"?

Further, there was not just ONE disclaimer.
Nor were there just TWO disclaimers.
Three?
Four?

Could someone go back and count how many times disclaimers were made in OP, and come back and tell us?

If I'm not mistaken, pretty much the entire bit of lengthy commentary after the story is nothing but disclaimer after disclaimer after disclaimer after disclaimer.



Besides that; even though it's a troll article from a Science Blog facilitated for illustration purposes and PSA, it's much cooler than the usual quad copter, chinese lantern, balloons and other such always getting sold and promoted as actually real without any disclaimer.

S & F
Good read and lots of fun to think about.
Had my heart beating a little faster then the norm and that is a good thing!

Riffrafter

intrptr
reply to post by AliceBleachWhite

 

I post it also as an example that not everything one reads on the internet is true, and anything fantastic such as this (before the updated disclaimer was posted) should be exampled as fair reason to take a few breaths, check some facts, corroborate the story with other sources, verify the claims, and THEN post, otherwise, one might find they've fallen for some trolling.

I'll troll that. Scientists will never "make contact" with anything out there. If life exists in the Universe and it has been there forever, then the ether should be full of commo. Since we aren't picking that up it should be obvious they are communicating in a spectrum we are unaware of yet.

They might as well be listening for radio signals with a Conch shell.

Love your last line...

You might have a good point. But that doesn't mean we should stop looking & listening. Maybe they "all" aren't using the super-secret new & advanced comms tech. Or maybe a stray signal from one of their "homes" to one of their robotic lawn-mowers or something still uses the "old tech".

Or maybe some civ will decide to break "radio-silence" and contact us at some point.

I'll go one further....

Not all uses of radio are for communication.

Think about it.

We use radio:

To heat food in ovens (microwaves).

To photograph near earth asteroids (planetary radar).

To watch out for hostile missles, planes. (air defense radar).

To guide commercial air traffic (air traffic control radar).

To forecast weather (weather radar).

And we know how to use microwaves to beam electrical power across point-to-point over vast distances both on earth and in space.

Beyond that, many of our activities produce radio signals that are not intended for communication.

Car spark plugs

Arc wielding

Florescent lighting

Ion engines

Now, that's just our present technology.

What kinds of radio signals will our future technology produce as a byproduct, not intended for communication and what kind of radio interference signals would be produced technologies a civilization millions or billions of years beyond where we are today ?

ie: beamed interstellar propulsion, astroengineering traversable worm holes, warp engines, matter/anti matter reactors, etc...

One can only imagine.

SETI often does itself a disservice by only highlighting the search for communications when in reality SETI is much broader than that in that it's just looking for detectable technology, regardless of intended it being part of communications.

Finding an alien equivalent to a spark plug causing radio interference would be just as profound to many as a simple "Hello" message because it would prove an intelligent alien species with technology existed out there.

reply to post by Riffrafter

But that doesn't mean we should stop looking & listening. Maybe they "all" aren't using the super-secret new & advanced comms tech. Or maybe a stray signal from one of their "homes" to one of their robotic lawn-mowers or something still uses the "old tech".

Robotic lawn mowers, lol. If they are advanced (tongue in cheek) then they should have spread far and wide by now. Considering the Universe is infinite and all. So they would all have developed communications that they all depend on. I give that more than passing fancy because personally I believe that we aren't the only life. Thats Dark Ages thinking. Just like we spread out in our solar system with probes, and further with TV signals (how many light years out?), they would too. They may be seeding planets, we may be on one of them.

But I also realize that the tech to travel around even locally has to be advanced beyond our understanding of such things. I have seen one of them so for me it's not a matter of belief. It follows their communications would also be sufficiently advanced. Thats why I think we are unable to detect it. Light speed is slooow motion.

I think we do get glimpses, by the way. Here and now. My sighting has convinced me. Heres an example of someone else's…

reply to post by JadeStar

I'll go one further....

Not all uses of radio are for communication.

Excellent points - and post.

ie: beamed interstellar propulsion, astroengineering traversable worm holes, warp engines, matter/anti matter reactors, etc...

One can only imagine.

I have to say I love the way you think.

SETI often does itself a disservice by only highlighting the search for communications when in reality SETI is much broader than that in that it's just looking for detectable technology, regardless of intended it being part of communications.

Agreed 100%.

SETI (both the formal organization and the all of the informal bands of people who are "SETI-ing" both @home & otherwise) are searching for verifiable & detectable technology which by definition would be of intelligent origin.

I used to participate greatly in the SETI@Home project but after they hit a few technical and financial snags I took a break from it and don't even know where the project stands today. I'll check in on it to see if I can get an update.

intrptr
reply to post by Riffrafter

 

Robotic lawn mowers, lol. If they are advanced (tongue in cheek) then they should have spread far and wide by now. Considering the Universe is infinite and all. So they would all have developed communications that they all depend on. I give that more than passing fancy because personally I believe that we aren't the only life. Thats Dark Ages thinking. Just like we spread out in our solar system with probes, and further with TV signals (how many light years out?), they would too. They may be seeding planets, we may be on one of them.

But I also realize that the tech to travel around even locally has to be advanced beyond our understanding of such things. I have seen one of them so for me it's not a matter of belief. It follows their communications would also be sufficiently advanced. Thats why I think we are unable to detect it. Light speed is slooow motion.

You make some excellent points. That's why I think we have to keep searching. Even if we don't know exactly what we're searching for.

Or exactly how to go about it.

You never know what we might stumble upon...

I think we do get glimpses, by the way. Here and now. My sighting has convinced me. Heres an example of someone else's…

Is that the Hill Star Map?

If so, there's an excellent thread about that currently. If you haven't already seen it here's the link:
The Hill Star Map and Exoplanets

HomerinNC
Crap like this needs to be moved to the HOAX bin
I'm tired of the fake stories posted as REAL without a disclaimer in the subject line or BEFORE going into the news article

The disclaimer is there at the end along with OPs own opinion and a question to open discussion about what we would if it were real. Obviously reading this through before any disclaimer will give one an idea about how they would feel and lead to a livlier conversation.
BTW most disclaimers are at the end of an article or program unless it's to warn of inappropriate content for some viewers.
Disclaimers only come in the beginning on rollercoaster.