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 ...
Bad move sending all those messages. Most of them are probably so whiny they will scare the Vulcans away.
ping
And now here comes the great UFO hoax. Global warming was a flop and now they will try the UFO.
It could be the Planet Utopio. Long sought after as the home Planet of the Mother Ship. According to legend it will bathe the earth in a Utopian ray that will turn all the races Gray and end racism one and for all.
In the movie "Watchmen" this plot element was changed.
Flashing neon sign: OBAMA - PHONE HOME!
One, Gliese 581 is a red dwarf star. Primitives in todays world trying to devise an astral religion from scratch would end up worshiping the sun and moon; nonetheless the two chieftain gods of all of the ancient religions were Jupiter and Saturn, which would almost certainly be red dwarf stars without the nearby presence of our sun.
Two is the tidal lock i.e. the fact that the Goldilocks planet has one pole pointed straight at the star, permanently. Greek and Roman myths all claim there were no seasons prior to the flood. That's what you'd expect with a tidal lock formation.
So, a signal is detected from an area where we now detect a potentially habitable (in human terms) planet.
If it turns out to be signs of intelligent life.....wow.
bump
Unfortunately the media runs to the scientists with the most outrageous claims they can find instead of the cautious scientists who look for real evidence.
Last night it was the scientists who said he’s 100% sure there’s life there based on absolutely nothing.
Wake me up when we actually are presented an outer space visitor.
The world is totally loony.
“If it turns out to be signs of intelligent life.....wow.”
Quick, call QUIX.
He is the official FR ufologist and ET expert.
Meanwhile, on Gliese...
“Our scientists have interpreted these mysterious transmissions, and have determined them to be menu items.”
Don’t make me post pictures of Helen Thomas or Michael Jackson!
I believe a tidally locked satellite would have its poles more or less perpendicular to plane of the orbit and therefore also perpendicular to the line connecting the center of mass of the central body and the satellite. The moon is tidally locked to earth; its orbital period is exactly equal to its rotational period, so it always presents the same face to the earth. There earth does not appear at precisely the same direction as seen from the moon, but does wiggle a little bit because of the eliptical nature of the moon’s orbit and a slight tilt of the rotational axis compared to the orbital plane. The earth also exhibits phases as seen from the moon, but they are 180 degrees out of phase with lunar phases seen from earth. When we see a full moon, lunarians see a new earth phase, and vice versa.
THIS JUST IN:
The flashing light has been deciphered.
It’s Morse Code for “REPEAL IT!”.
Next up: A request for more grant money. These people are so predictable.
Aliens are just as likely to elect Obamas and Hitlers as we are.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.