Posted on 10/01/2010 3:22:54 AM PDT by tlb
An astronomer picked up a mysterious pulse of light coming from the direction of the newly discovered Earth-like planet almost two years ago, it has emerged.
Dr Ragbir Bhathal, a scientist at the University of Western Sydney, picked up the odd signal in December 2008, long before it was announced that the star Gliese 581 has habitable planets in orbit around it.
Dr Bhathal had been sweeping the skies when he discovered a 'suspicious' signal from an area of the galaxy that holds the newly-discovered Gliese 581g.
The remarkable coincidence adds another layer of mystery to the announcement last night that scientists had discovered another planet in the system: Gliese 581g - the most Earth-like planet ever found.
Dr Bhathal's discovery had come just months before astronomers announced that they had found a similar, slightly less habitable planet around the same star 20 light years away. This planet was called Gliese 581e.
He went on: 'We found this very sharp signal, sort of a laser lookalike thing which is the sort of thing we’re looking for - a very sharp spike. And that is what we found. So that was the excitement about the whole thing.'
For months after his discovery Dr Bhathal scanned the skies for a second signal to see whether it was just a glitch in his instrumentation but his search came to nothing.
But the discovery of Earth-like planets around Gliese 581 - both 581e and 581d, which was in the habitable zone - has also caught the public imagination.
Documentary-maker RDF and social-networking site Bebo used a radio telescope in Ukraine to send a powerful focused beam of information - 500 messages from the public in the form of radiowaves - to Gliese 581.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Just as Werner Von Braun predicted many years ago.
>>> To reiterate..... they are us.Or, obversely, we are them
Or put yet another way:
I am he as you are he
As you are me
And we are all together
Goo goo g`joob
That flashing light is a call for all leftists to come home.
I can read the code.
I can also help them pack.
No life there. The only mystery is why this solar system is getting pumped in the media so often lately. It could be, as you suggest, Wendy, an attempt to create a new religion, a new idol to replace the failed global warming story.
Yo.
No, not ‘wow’. The planets around this star are almost certainly sterile, because it’s a FLARE STAR (as I keep pointing out in thread after thread). It shoots out deadly radiation in giant plumes all the time.
And you don't ping *me*?
;-)
Seriously though, this is a brilliant and recurring theme.
Outer Limits had an episode involving a fake alien invasion.
Another foreshadowing of a likely (near) future.
Yeah... But Lucy is purple with tentacles.
Ah... nice concept.
Reality, though, I believe, will be the opposite.
The anti-Christ that “solves the world’s problems” will arrive as an “extraterrestrial”, and people will accept him as a savior of the world.
It was thoughtless of me!!
Are you trying to give Jesse Jackson nightmares?
I’m sure it was only million year old (1st run) TV show of “I love Glucy”... perhaps with some hi-tech instructions on how to built a 1st Contact machine.
Come to think of it, I'm pretty sure that all his ideas differ from yours.
;)
On the gripping hand...
Exactly. The media runs with the most sensational headline they can find while the rest of the scientific community studies in quiet anonymity.
In this case one guy says he saw a flash. Other astronomers would point out that space is lit up with distant explained and unexplained flashes and flickers all the time.
Last night there was a story about a “scientist” who claims he’s 100% sure that there is life on the planet despite having zero evidence to back up his claim. Other scientists say that IF there was life on the planet it would most likely be microbial life.
I personally hate the term “earthlike” because science has one view of that and the media promotes another view. From a scientific standpoint, mercury, venus and mars are all “earthlike”. I prefer the term “rocky planet” as a better description.
As a kid I was totally hooked on that show and it scared the crap out of me. My mom hated it...
Mote, etc...
Pimping for research grants.
What are the chances that, in the whole of the universe, there is an earth like planet with something / someone on it this close?
Bunk.
Moms never like really cool stuff.
Intelligent life would not want to visit us.
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