Mysterious radio signals from space

[Lillianmort]

In the news, they are saying that radio signals "from 1000 light years away" have been detected. Of course, some people are getting excited and saying they are from extraterrestrials, but what do you think is really going on?

[Chillum]

the ghost of John Peel.

[jake-the-peg]

We get radio signals from space all the time - radio astronomy is based on this - sometimes they can be really strange - in the sixties Jocelyn Bell saw fast regular pulsing from an object and nobody knew what they were so they were humourously called LGM for little green men later they were explained as pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars.

1000 light years is probably in our local group of galaxies - without knowing the detail it's hard to guess but probably a new large pulsar?

[Loosehead]

1000 light years is faily local within the galaxy, the galaxy is 50000 light years across. As jake says radio signals come from all over the place from pulsars to radio galaxies. Its unlikely to be LGM, don't get me wrong I'm sure we are not alone, it's just that the distances involved mean we will never see them, even radio contact is unlikely as the signal would dissipate very quickly. Try to aim a signal at even a very local 1000 light years, at a planet and you can see the difficulty. Still doesn't the stop the thousands of alien abductions, particularly in California!