Extraterrestrial intelligence?

[Jehanne]

I don't believe in UFOs.  I did see the latest Star Trek last night.  Poor Anton; he will definitively be missed.

Not to derail this thread, though...

Who wouldn't believe in UFOs?  There are probably hundreds or thousands of them every year.  They are just most likely not spacecraft made by extraterrestrial beings.

They're not; everyone agrees on that, except for cranks.

[Jehanne]

Seems they're at it again:

Astronomers Ermanno Borra and Eric Trottier, from the Université Laval in Quebec, examined the stars that were catalogued from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Out of more than 2 million surveyed stars, the scientists found 234 that exhibit spectral modulation.

The stars exhibit rapid bursts of light. The spectral modulation also seems to be identical across many different stars. The scientists said that the signal from the stars is consistent with signals from an alien civilization sending extremely rapid optical pulses that was predicted in an earlier paper by Borra.

Last year, the giant star KIC 8462852 made a stir after scientists found that it emits light patterns different from those observed on other stars. Some considered the idea that the dips in the starlight could indicate the existence of an alien megastructure.

The researchers considered several possible explanations for these light pulses but eventually concluded that these signals can be best explained by extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI). Borra and Trottier said that the signals are likely from an intelligent alien civilization manipulating the stars to send a message and make us aware that they exist.
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/183699...zation.htm

Still seems to me like a some natural phenomenon we haven't explained yet, like pulsars were few decades ago.

Read this:

https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.03693

No scientific models have been able to explain the light curve.

[AFTT47]

Interesting but the alien hypothesis seems like a reach to me. If aliens were taking the trouble to send signals, I would expect the signals to be obviously artificial - sending a stream of prime numbers for example.

[Jehanne]

Interesting but the alien hypothesis seems like a reach to me. If aliens were taking the trouble to send signals, I would expect the signals to be obviously artificial - sending a stream of prime numbers for example.

A light year is 6 trillion miles, and we're moving through space at 500,000+ mph.  For a directional signal, it would be far more difficult than anything that William Tell could have done.  An omni-directional signal would be prohibitively expensive.

[Fake Messiah]

Now I see on google news that scientists are "pouring" 100 billion dollars to study those stars. I bet that when they decipher the message those stars are blinking that it's a commercial for a space junk food chain.

[Jehanne]

Now I see on google news that scientists are "pouring" 100 billion dollars to study those stars. I bet that when they decipher the message those stars are blinking that it's a commercial for a space junk food chain.

It would have to be something much, much deeper than that, for instance, the sequence of PI on the Hydrogen line.  Considering the universality of physical laws, it stands to reason that ET would be a rational being with rational motives.