Fast Radio Bursts: Signature of Distant Technology?

[Doug Loss]

Fast Radio Bursts: Signature of Distant Technology?

FRB 121102 appears to be a rare case of a repeating FRB (about which more a bit later). The distances involved and the brightness of the FRBs have led to source hypotheses ranging from gamma ray bursts to massive neutron stars. But as Avi Loeb (Harvard University) speculates in a new paper slated to appear in Astrophysical Journal Letters, we could conceivably be dealing with an engineering phenomenon rather than a natural one. What Loeb and Manasvi Lingam, a Harvard postdoctoral fellow at Harvard’s School of Engineering, discuss is whether FRBs could be interpreted as artificial beams set up as an infrastructure for pushing lightsails.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

The idea of pushing light sails is a new one. Probability of that seems pretty slim, but ya never know.

@kevindavis

[Doug Loss]

The idea of pushing light sails is a new one. Probability of that seems pretty slim, but ya never know.

@kevindavis

Nah, the idea's been around for years.  There are some pretty detailed engineering studies of what it would take.  In fact, the Breakthrough Initiative is looking at light sails very seriously.

[kevindavis007]

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[sneakypete]

The idea of pushing light sails is a new one. Probability of that seems pretty slim, but ya never know.

@kevindavis

@Idaho_Cowboy

IIRC,there was a article about it is Issac Asivov's Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine maybe 15-20 years ago.

[Idaho_Cowboy]

Thanks I had no idea the concept was as well researched or around as long as it turns out.

I still say the odds of this particularly observed phenomenon being light sails is slim.