Flashes of cosmic light

[mojo]

An interesting article link below from Space.com. Have you ever witnessed flashes in the night sky? Sometimes they may be flares off satellites but other times they may be more unusual. The article poses a question that they may be mysterious cosmic light flashes powering alien spacecraft. A few years back the night vision scope I was using caught some flashes that were unusual.


http://www.space.com/35996-fast-radio-bursts-powering-alien-spacecraft.html

Bizarre flashes of cosmic light may actually be generated by advanced alien civilizations, as a way to accelerate interstellar spacecraft to tremendous speeds, a new study suggests.

Astronomers have catalogued just 20 or so of these brief, superbright flashes, which are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), since the first one was detected in 2007. FRBs seem to be coming from galaxies billions of light-years away, but what's causing them remains a mystery.

"Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," study co-author Avi Loeb, a theorist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement Thursday (March 9). "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking."

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[DeDukshyn]

 
If anyone wonders what a "light sail" ship might be like - the type of ship imagined in the speculation, here's a clip from Deep Space 9 showcasing such a vessel.
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And an actual working model of a similar technology ... only using lasers light instead of radio waves. This one, as crafted here will only work in an tmosphere bcause it still uses plasma created by oxygen from the atmosphere, bu the general concept is similar.
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Here is NASA's design ...
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[7alon]

As far as I am aware, this is a function of certain satellites.

Satellite flare, also known as satellite glint, is the phenomenon caused by the reflective surfaces on satellites (such as antennas, SAR or solar panels) reflecting sunlight directly onto the Earth below and appearing as a brief, bright "flare".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

[DeDukshyn]

As far as I am aware, this is a function of certain satellites.

Satellite flare, also known as satellite glint, is the phenomenon caused by the reflective surfaces on satellites (such as antennas, SAR or solar panels) reflecting sunlight directly onto the Earth below and appearing as a brief, bright "flare".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

Well, the OP is referring to this discovery: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/mysterious-flashes-could-be-alien-spacecraft-at-work-harvard-scientists-say/ar-AAo7gBz?li=AAggFp5

Yet Mojos personal observations may be what you linked to.

[7alon]

As far as I am aware, this is a function of certain satellites.

Satellite flare, also known as satellite glint, is the phenomenon caused by the reflective surfaces on satellites (such as antennas, SAR or solar panels) reflecting sunlight directly onto the Earth below and appearing as a brief, bright "flare".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

Well, the OP is referring to this discovery: http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/mysterious-flashes-could-be-alien-spacecraft-at-work-harvard-scientists-say/ar-AAo7gBz?li=AAggFp5

Yet Mojos personal observations may be what you linked to.

Ah yes, sorry I should have stated what I was referring to exactly. The lights that scientists are seeing could be anything really. Remember that whatever it is, is billions of light years away, therefore you'd have to keep in mind that what is being seen is billions of years old. So if it is of extraterrestrial origin, boy I'd like to see how advanced they are now (if they still exist) :ROFL:.

[Chester]

The flash appears to be at exact equal increments of approximately 11 seconds apart.

[Sena]

New Scientist article - "Could fast radio bursts really be powering alien space ships?"
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2124209-could-fast-radio-bursts-really-be-powering-alien-space-ships/

Independent newspaper UK - "Humanity might have received a signal from aliens that it isn’t checking, says Harvard professor."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fast-radio-bursts-frbs-aliens-exist-probes-harvard-avi-loeb-message-a7622056.html

Quote from article:
"Loeb and fellow Harvard academic Manasvi Lingam have explored whether the messages could emanate from a radio transmitter, in a paper to be published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters. This would require a planet-sized solar-power generator to pelt messages across the galaxy.

Such technology is far beyond human capability now, the Harvard scientists note, but it is not beyond the laws of physics or out of the reach of a very developed alien civilisation."

"Loeb says that his work is speculative and that more work must be done to check whether such an idea would be possible. It doesn’t matter whether or not he believes that they are caused by aliens, he said.

“Science isn’t a matter of belief, it’s a matter of evidence. Deciding what’s likely ahead of time limits the possibilities. It’s worth putting ideas out there and letting the data be the judge.”

Research article on arxiv.org - "Fast Radio Bursts from Extragalactic Light Sails"
https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.01109

https://youtu.be/tyC9se2RgGk

[Nick Matkin]

The OP video is talking about light flashes not the Fast Radio Bursts which are another entirely different phenomenon.

The OP video looks exactly like cosmic rays hitting an occasional night-vision CCD pixel and triggering it. A question to any amateur photography group specializing in night-vision video astronomy will supply some informed opinion.

[Sena]

The OP video is talking about light flashes not the Fast Radio Bursts which are another entirely different phenomenon.

The OP video looks exactly like cosmic rays hitting an occasional night-vision CCD pixel and triggering it. A question to any amateur photography group specializing in night-vision video astronomy will supply some informed opinion.

This is a quote from the original post:
""Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven't identified a possible natural source with any confidence," study co-author Avi Loeb, a theorist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said in a statement Thursday (March 9). "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking.""
I hope the OP clarifies which phenomenon he is referring to.

[Nick Matkin]

Seems there is some confusion here with two phenomena being muddles up.

The original video probably shows some false pixel triggering in the CCD camera. Maybe caused by cosmic ray particles (although I think they are usually more of a dash shape than a tiny flash) or some other camera artefact.

FRB are in the radio spectrum and only detectable using very large radio telescopes and are not visible in the light spectrum, even using a night-vision camera!

The expression "exceedingly bright" I believe is an expression referring to the intensity of the burst in the radio spectrum and not optical brightness.

[Sena]

I agree. I'll start a new thread for FRB.

[mojo]

Sorry if there was any confusion in the OP my reasoning was based on the reading of science description about fast radio bursts, when the statement reads, "bright flashes" but in fact they register on the radio frequencies which seemed confusing to be saying bright flashes instead of a signal. So the flashes still remain a mystery to me. They could be seen with the naked eye and moved only a short distance in the sky. The Gen 3 nightvision doesnt have any pixel problems as suggested. But thank you you both for helping me to understand the FRB's better.

[mojo]

changed title to reflect the new information, edit tried to change, actually a mod or admin can make the main change

[Nick Matkin]

Iridium flares make bright flashes, but I admit they didn't look like what was in the video.

When viewed with the naked eye Iridium flares look like normal satellites, then in the period of about five seconds flare up to anything between magnitude -5(brighter than Venus) then dim to faint brightness before moving away and dimming to nothing.

Check out Heavens Above for all your satellite and astronomy needs! http://heavens-above.com/?lat=52.84728&lng=0.8143645&loc=Sculthorpe&alt=23&tz=GMT