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Alien theories understandable after mysterious signals, say scientists
In the 400 years since Galileo Galilei first held a telescope to the heavens, astronomers have laid bare some of the deepest mysteries of the cosmos. They have en comets crash into planets, found oceans inside moons, and witnesd the shudder of spacetime as black holes collide.
But space remains a realm of the unknown. Writing in the journal Nature on Thursday,scientists in Canada reported the detection of mysterious radio signals from halfway across the univer. It is only the cond time that repeating fast radio bursts, or FRBs,have been spotted.
Astronomers have yet to formulate a full theory of what produces the enigmatic,rapid-fire beams of electromagnetic waves. And 1n the abnce of a firm explanation,speculation has fallen, perhaps inevitably, on alien civilisations. Avi Loeb, a Harvard astronomer, has propos
ed that FRBs might be powerful energy beams ud to propel alien spacecraft.
It is not the first time that poorly-understood cosmic phenomena have been ascribed to industrious extraterrestrials. When in 2015 astronomers noticed a star, 1,500 light years distant, dimming and brightening, rearchers suggested an“alien megastructure励志演讲 大学英语四级考试成绩查询might be revolving around it, and collecting energy for its constructors. Then, in 2017,the massive cigar-shaped ‘Oumuamua barrelled into the solar system, the first interstellar object known to do so, and prompted speculation that it was a tumbling spacecraft.
popcChris French, head of the Anomalistic Psychology Rearch Unit at Goldsmiths,University of London, said it was natural for humans to e aliens behind every cosmicmystery.“We have what is called an intentionality bias," he said.“It s the assumption that whenever something happens, something or someone made it happen for a reason.In the context of space, that someone is always going to be aliens."
The evolutionary argument for intentionality bias, or“agenticity”, is that our ancientancestors fared better if a rustle in the bushes made them run for cover rather tha
n pale manassume it was the wind.“At the end of the day, our brains evolved to keep us alive rather than apprehend the truth of the univer," said French.
The late astronomer Carl Sagan spotted the dilemma for scientists. They can become cranks if they are too open-minded, but may miss out on landmark discoveries if they are not open-minded enough.“It ems to me what i伦敦奥运会贝克汉姆s called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs," he said.“The most sceptical scrutiny of all hypothes that are rved up to us and at the same time a great openness to new ideas.”
Duncan Lorimer, an astrophysicist at West Virginia University, discovered the first FRB in 2007. When his team spotted the radio burst, the possibility of it being a message日语我爱你怎么写 特色英语培训from ET certainly came up.“We absolutely thought about aliens," he said. “We only had the one object. We looked for patterns in the signal and couldn't find anything, but we definitely considered it”
Now, mention of aliens is beginning to wear thin“It helps to ll the story, but at this point I do roll my eyes a bit,' he said. Many astronomers now favour the idea that FRBs整体认读音节 are inte
n beams of radiation shed by charged particles as they are whipped around by strongly magnetid neutron stars. "It ems like a more plausible idea, but I 小学英语跟读软件免费版don’t want to rule out aliens重庆高考成绩查询时间2021 completely,” he said.“I've been wrong before.”
1. When was the fist FRB discovered?
A.2007
B.2017
C.2015
D.2012
2. Which of the following description conform to the statement of intentionlity bias"?
A If something happens, someone mist make it happen.
B Rustle in the bushes made a mam assume it was the wind
C. In the context of space, someone 1s always going to be aliens
D FRBS are inten beams of radiation shed by charged particles.
