So they found a liveable planet, in the same solar system we received a strange signal from in 2009.

[dave29]

Just thought I'd throw that out there.


http://www.vbs.tv/blog/ragbir-bhathal-aussie-alien-hunter
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/watch-this-space/story-e6frg8gf-1225710664198

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hA43mkzqSSZkUClEC9-Y6IdRlmRAD9IICCCO0?docId=D9IICCCO0

[tridim]

1. It just feels like something big is about to break.

Maybe it's because I've watched three SETI programs in a row this morning on NatGeo?

[truebrit71]

4. All the talk from the ex USAF folks about UFO's...

..the UN setting something up for alien contact...Hmmm...maybe they are softening us up for something?

[Orsino]

16. Richard Hoagland on Coast To Coast this morning probably didn't help.

He would have us believe that the Obama Administration is setting us up for full disclosure via coded messages in The Event (yes, the TV show).

[tridim]

18. I can't tell if you're being serious. Did he really say that?

Weren't the same predictions made for "V"?

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. You are misremembering - V did not presage the coming of aliens.

It predicted the rise of the Republicans.

I've always wondered how many guinea pigs it takes to satiate Sarah Palin.

[Orsino]

30. He really said that.

And kept us on the edge of our seats for two segments waiting on his promised revelations coming from a goddamned TV show.

The man's a first-class crank, or perhaps just a huckster who sells crankery. As much as I enjoyed the occasionally hilarious Dark Moon, it's sad to see him try to sell nothing so breathlessly. I guess that's the way of these things, though. One has to keep escalating the crazy, or the audience loses interest.

As with Beck...but Hoagland is clearly the more desperate, presumably because he's not paid as well.

[tridim]

33. I was introduced to Hoagland in the 90's during the "structures on the Moon" crap.

I was working at a small dial-up ISP and some crazy person called and told me all about Hoagland, and how she needed Internet so she could look up more crazy stuff. She's probably a teabagger today.

[LongTomH]

44. Hoagland was also one of the people pushing the 'Face on Mars' flap.

You know, the one that turned out to be a naturally carved mesa that didn't look anything like a face when it was imaged at high-res.

[cbdo2007]

51. They're still talking about the Face on Mars. Coast to Coast just did a show about it

a few weeks ago saying the high-res images aren't a good representation because if you zoom in close enough on anything it won't look like what it is, claiming the images are all out of context.

Sure, it's crazy but it's also fun to think about. :)

[Orsino]

73. Hoagland simply calls the newer Face imagery a conspiracy.

One theme of Dark Moon is his theory that Someone inside NASA is trying to get The Truth(tm) out, but doing it very carefully, releasing tiny hints one at a time that only an Alert Researcher can detect.

On Coast To Coast the other morning, he also kept harping on his "tetrahedral, hyperdimensional" arithmetic...for no apparent reason other than making all the nothing sound exciting.

[KansasVoter]

40. I doubt it. But exciting to think about!

[Raksha]

58. I think so too--it's been nothing but one UFO story after another for weeks.

And then there's "The Event," which I still haven't seen yet.

[dembotoz]

2. maybe we can export some republicans there.

and if the trip last longer than they do??
I have no problem with that.

[qb]

3. What the hell, are you trying to start an intragalactic war?

:hi:

[golddigger]

5. Great.\, another planet the human race can fuck up.

[dave29]

7. Don't worry it's 20 light years away

currently it would take us hundreds of years to get there... although it won't be long before they start receiving the first FOXNews signals

[Posteritatis]

15. Woo, five replies before the inevitable misanthropy wank! (nt)

[golddigger]

46. Yeah, brought to you from your friendly

big mining corporation. Wank!

[peace13]

6. If it is beautiful and viable for human life...do not send anyone there.

Earth people will only *uck it up royal!

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. That doesn't actually say they received anything from Gliese

The first says they sent something to it; the second that Bhathal got something unusual from an unspecified place. It then mentions another Gliese planet, but doesn't say that's where the signal came from.

[dave29]

12. it's all over the web, he got it from the vicinity of another planet in this solar system

he was interviewed when they discovered the uninhabitable rocky world in the vicinity -- but you are correct in the way the articles read.

Another link from a year or so ago:

http://www.disclose.tv/forum/oh-shit-alien-laser-like-signal-coming-from-gliese-581e-t32674.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. Oh yeah, a forum titled "truth revealed"

That's a reliable source. :rofl:

You'll notice that they link to the article from The Australian - but they've inserted their own claim '"suspicious" laser-like signal coming from the coordinates of Gliese 581 e' which doesn't appear in the Australian article at all. ie they've made that bit up.

[dave29]

19. if you do some of your own research, there is plenty out there not related to suspicious forums

the scientist is legit. He himself finds it suspicious, and did not make a big deal out of it, until it could be peer reviewed. This "laser" info has been dug up since the announcement yesterday, he has not been out promoting it.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. He does not say his signal came from Gliese

Read the VBS interview again. He says "whenever there’s a clear night, I go up to the observatory and do a run on some of the celestial objects. Looking at one of these objects, we found this signal". Notice that is just 'an object'. Later on in the interview, he says "this magazine called Cosmos got everyone to send messages to them, which will then be sent to a planet called Gliese which 20 light years away" - but no mention that that is where he had been looking. He mentions Gliese once more - as "like these messages they sent out to Gliese" - but, again, says nothing about it being where he looked that day.

I have done my own research. That's why I posted in your thread, to calm you down.

[dave29]

26. well thanks so much

:) I feel better already lol,

praytell where he did get the signal from, since you have looked so thoroughly

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. He doesn't say, in either interview

If you can find an email address for him (I'm looking at the moment), I'm quite happy to write and ask him.

[dave29]

31. ok now we are on the same wavelength

I spoke with a New Zealand theoretical physicist regarding his theories on time not too long ago. Sorry if I am coming across as surly... I do not take this stuff lightly. Not a UFO enthusiast, but an astronomy minor at the University of Texas back in the day. I have since become enamored with physics and and theories on time and space.

Here ya go, have at it :)

http://pubapps.uws.edu.au/teldir/personprocess.php?Email=[e-mail]

[muriel_volestrangler]

34. Thanks, I've sent an email

I'll let you know if I get anything back. :)

[dave29]

36. thanks!

:hi:

[muriel_volestrangler]

38. Update: I've found this website

which may or may not be reliable:

The Source of the Laser Flash Revealed

Beyond that Dr Bhathal is not prepared to make any further comments until he and his team have checked and double checked all possible explanations for the laser flash. In May, he would not even be drawn to reveal the direction from which it originated, telling me on June 1, "We have not released the location from where the signal came from yet. We are still analysing it and trying to explain it." Yet he promised to keep me informed of developments, and today, after reading the draft of this news blog, he has exclusively revealed that the source of the signal is the area of sky marked by a group of six faint stars that create the constellation known as Tucana, the Latin name for the South American toucan bird. This small star cluster, which was designated its name as recently as the late sixteenth century, is visible only in the Southern Hemisphere and the lower latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. Its stand out feature is that it harbors the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy that at 200,000 light years distance from our solar system is the second closest galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy. The SMC forms a pair with the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which lies some 20 degrees to the east and is the nearest galaxy to our own. Both the SMC and the LMC form, with the Milky Way, a cluster of some 30 galaxies bound together by their localised gravitational pulls.

http://www.andrewcollins.com/page/news/EQ12%20_2_Is%20it%20ET.htm

Tucana is RA 0h, declination -65 degrees, which is a long way from Gliese 581 - RA 15h 19m, decl. -7 degrees. But any reply from Dr. Bhathal would be definitive.

[dave29]

42. good find.

Seems to indicate as you suggested that people are confusing these two stories (including myself)

[DireStrike]

56. Can you still tell the distance from a laser signal with redshift?

If it were a signal from, say Gliese's 20 LY away, communication might be possible. If it's from the small magellanic cloud... Ships passing in the night.

[muriel_volestrangler]

60. I don't think a red shift would help here

A red shift (or blue shift) directly measures the velocity of the other object, relative to the earth - it's the Doppler effect, of a shift in frequency, like a sound of a vehicle. For closer objects in the universe, it might go either way, because some objects are coming towards us, others receding. They noticed that all far objects have a red shift, and the farther away, the bigger the red shift, and that gave the theory of an expanding universe, and that you could measure the distance of really far way objects just from their velocity relative to us.

But, on this scale, anything in out own galaxy, like Gliese 581, won't have any frequency shift from expansion, and the Magellanic Clouds are too close too - they're in our 'Local Group', and in orbit around the Local Group's centre of gravity.

[muriel_volestrangler]

61. I got a reply, but it says he's away on a conference

Nothing more than that, I'm afraid.

[DeschutesRiver]

70. If you get a reply, please update. I am also really curious re where the signal came from. nt

[Liberal In Texas]

9. "We're coming back and we are not happy with what you've done..."

Was that the signal?

[hlthe2b]

10. This just feeds the imagination, doesn't it....

WHo knows? ;)

[dave29]

13. indeed!

I love this stuff :)

[Ichingcarpenter]

11. The Planet Ferenginar says they have much in common with Corporations

They say that their Rules of Acquisition are very similar to how are corporations work.
They plan on voting republican but don't want to be seen as illegal aliens

That snark aside, I think that when we get the new telescopes and satellites working in the near future we are going be in for some big surprises. It will be astounding to see what this system and what other solar systems really reveal.


We still have the crippling limitations of the speed of light in even communicating with
any technological life form on even a short galactic distance of 20 light years.

[aquart]

22. Which is probably a good thing.

One transferred germ, we could wipe each other out.

[InvisibleTouch]

14. Hmm, and there's the "UN Ambassador to the Aliens...."

I say it's about time we meet the neighbors.

[HopeHoops]

21. They just translated that signal - it read, "STAY THE FUCK AWAY, ASSHOLES!"

[aquart]

24. Colbert weighs in:

StephenAtHome

An Earth-like planet has been discovered 20 light years away. Great. Now even the Earth's job isn't safe. 2 minutes ago via SocialOomph

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

25. "Take us to your leader... when you have one."

[tridim]

35. We finally have one, and you don't even know it.

Figures.

[Ernesto]

28. What if they're Muslims????? nt

[dave29]

37. Jesus Christ! What would we do!

:hi:

[kestrel91316]

29. Cool. Someplace we can colonize after we have destroyed our own earth.

And to hell with any locals. We'll just bring more blankets with smallpox.

[felix_numinous]

32. If aliens disguise themselves well

there are plenty of people waiting to be raptured...just saying.

[Greyhound]

39. Can the invasion be far behind?

:rofl:

Seriously, this is possibly very cool.
:thumbsup:

[Ichingcarpenter]

41. AP: Military demands a 10 fold increase in the Defense Budget

Congress gives them a Brazilion dollars to handle the threat...
Homeland security demands rectal searches of all citizens and more money.


The military industrial complex wins again....

[BuelahWitch]

43. LOL, thought the ALIENS were supposed to do the rectal probes! n/t

[PVnRT]

45. Gliese 581e is not habitable

[Buns_of_Fire]

47. That's why they're on their way here.

And they're HUNGRY!

Damn. I just scared myself.:scared:

[Demstud]

49. Actually, we don't know one way or another

As far as I can tell. Did one of the articles say it's uninhabitable?

[DireStrike]

57. It's not in the goldilocks zone.

So it probably doesn't have liquid water.

Doesn't mean it's uninhabitable.

[PVnRT]

63. It's essentially an Earth-sized Mercury

Very close to the sun, and very hot, so it's fairly unlikely that it has much of an atmosphere. It would be receiving an immense dose of radiation from the star. It might be possible, if there is some kind of atmosphere, for a few extremophiles to eek out an existence, but, realistically, that's it.

[Statistical]

65. Why is everyone talking about Gliese 581e? The newest planet is Gliese 581 g

Which is is inside the habitable zone, likely has a greenhouse, and potentially could have both liquid water and temperatures stable enough (although bitterly cold -20 to 10 F) to support life.

[Statistical]

64. e likely isn't but Gliese g has the potential.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_581_g

Located near the middle of Gliese habitable zone with pressence of water a strong possibility.

[Gold Metal Flake]

66. If it is locked in a non-rotating orbit, would it have a magnetic field?

I don't think so. Without a large magnetic field and some wicked pisser radiation belts protecting it the solar winds would have stripped any atmosphere of oxygen long ago. No atmosphere=Mercury-like. Atmosphere=Venus-like.

The real news WRT this story is that our ability to observe the heavens has improved so dramatically that we can now discern planets only 3x the mass of our own. Those abilities to detect foreign planets is improving all the time. This is good stuff.

The rest of the story, the wild speculation about water and air, is just a thick frosting of woowoo for the children.

[Statistical]

68. Not exactly...

the specualtion about air & water is speculation but it isn't all that wild.

Gliese 581 g is reflecting a significant fraction of infrared radiation it receives from it's star. Models (which could be wrong there is some element of uncertainty) indicate it would require a greenhouse atmosphere to achieve that level of infrared reflection. It may turn out that Gliese 581 g it is the best candidate of all observed planets so far. If "g" has a greenhouse comparable to earth it would have a relatively stable surface temp of -20F to 10F on the "day side". Certainly in the range for formation of water. On the other hand if it's greenhouse is significantly thicker (possible due to it's heavier mass) it could be 20 even 30 deg "warmer". Still a very cold rock but the closest to earth-like conditions anywhere in the universe (that we have discovered so far).

I was just wondering why everyone was talking about the "e" planet given that is a 5 year old discovery and far less interesting than the "g" planet.

[Demstud]

48. Misleading title

We don't know if the planet is livable or not, only that it is in the right area to have temperatures similar to earth. I didn't see anything regarding atmospheric composition or other details. It is exciting to find a planet in our own backyard with these characteristics though, suggesting they might be common enough that we WILL discover alien life. Who knows, it might turn out to be livable, but then again, it might not. Currently, it's our best known candidate, but still an unknown.

[Techn0Girl]

50. Incorrect Title - We never received a signal from that system....

Although it's being widely reported in many blogs that way (so not your fault really)

Gliese 581 is NOT where the supposed "signal" originated from . See:
http://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/dkw5a


This piece of misinformation has strangely gone viral around the web - very odd.

[Art_from_Ark]

52. Misinformation has a tendency to "go viral around the web"

As the old saying goes, a lie can go halfway around the world before the truth steps out the door

[pipi_k]

53. that strange signal in 2009...

If the planet is 20 light years away that probably means they're getting old broadcasts of shows like:

The Smurfs
Married With Children
Care Bears
Dukes of Hazard
Mork and Mindy

etc.


They want us to change the fucking channel....

[krispos42]

54. We sent a signal there in 2008.

It's a 20-year trip (one way) so in my lifetime we might get a response.


Sweet!!!

[DireStrike]

55. 20LY away?!

And with a dwarf star... it could support life for a long time. We might just be able to send a colony ship there in a few hundred or thousand years.

Gotta send some probes first and check it out...

[Statistical]

67. Yeah thinking on a very long time scale....

that star will remain stable for billion years or so after our star begins it expansion and death.

Unless mankind will die out in about a billion* or so years we eventually will need to move to other stars and we need stars that not only support life but have long and stable lifecycles.

*Our sun's lifespan is about 5 billion years however it is growing hotter by about 10% per billion years. Within another billion or so years earth's mean surface temperature will increase enough to boil off all liquid water. Think of it as "sol warming".

[DireStrike]

72. I've heard of the solar problem...

And long before all the water boils off, life as we know it will not be able to exist.

I wonder which is more difficult... colonization or terraforming...

[mitchtv]

59. get the garbage scows loaded

here we come

[RandomThoughts]

62. I noticed that it said something about lasers for messages.

Might as well play a good song. Note I don't believe in aliens.

Ride across the river.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hHfCMh-G-s


On a side note, with issues of some censorship in some organization, who would they contact?


The most important thought that could come from people believing in aliens, would be to ask, who would they want to help, the down trodden, those in hardship with little help, or those in luxury that have ignored them with little care for their suffering?

Would they want to help the polluters for extra profit? Or those that protect the environment, including plants and animals of many types?

I know the alien question comes up alot, but really regardless of what you believe, it can get you to think on society in a larger context.

[JackRiddler]

69. Poor bastards - they've been "discovered."

[flamingdem]

71. LOL! The strange message was "Leave us alone Bub" nt