Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site watdcsu.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!watnot!watdcsu!herbie From: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong - DCS) Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers Subject: Re: EMissions and Quasars Message-ID: <1616@watdcsu.UUCP> Date: Mon, 19-Aug-85 10:08:11 EDT Article-I.D.: watdcsu.1616 Posted: Mon Aug 19 10:08:11 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 21:43:21 EDT References: <7800040@orstcs.UUCP> Reply-To: herbie@watdcsu.UUCP (Herb Chong - DCS) Organization: U of Waterloo Lines: 51 Summary: In article <7800040@orstcs.UUCP> richardt@orstcs.UUCP (richardt) writes: >... deleteed material ... > > Therefore, the Sol Systems' EM radiation levels vary noticeably > at (to an unsuspecting alien) apparently random intervals. > Now, what are the Super-variable stars that are currently giving > the astronomers and physicists headaches? Quasars and Pulsars! Why? > Because Quasars and Pulsars *RADIATE EM PATTERNS WHICH ARE HIGHLY > VARIABLE IN CONCENTRATION, CONTENT, AND DISTRIBUTION, AND APPARENTLY > VARY RANDOMLY AT RANDOM INTERVALS!* Working from the likelyhood that > Earth will continue to radiate more EM in more range and with more > power, *ENENTUALLY EARTH WILL APPEAR TO BE A QUASAR OF SORTS!* not likely. the existence of pulsars was noticed precisely for the opposite reasons. they are more accurate than the majority of timepieces that the average consumer can even get to see, let alone buy. only when measuring differences in period on the order of microseconds does one begin to find variations in the period of a typical pulsar. their spectrums are well defined and, correcting for any observable supernova remnant visible, very close to being the same. quasars are still giving astronomers problems, but not for any of the above reasons. some recent observations have confirmed that at least some of the quasars observed really are at the huge distances measured but their red shifts. at the typical distance of a quasar, huge amounts of energy need to be consumed to be visibly as bright as they are, several orders of magnitudes above that of our galaxy. even postulating that the observed quasars are really broad band transmissions from a transmitter a thousand times larger than Aricebo, energies on the order of several solar masses/year need to be used to produce a signal that is comparable to a quasar even if it is all aimed at our general direction. i wouldn't want to be near that. if they aren't aimed in our direction but are omnidirectional broadcasts, then the energy requirements grow to the order of 10^6 solar masses/year. this is much more likely, since there are hundreds of observed quasars. why people that far away and that far in the past would hae wanted to look in our direction for as long as they have is beyond me 8-). the thing that has astronomers most puzzled is where all this energy is coming from. remember that the numbers i'm quoting are for complete conversion of that amount of matter to energy. quasars are not particularly variable by galactic standards. Herb Chong... I'm user-friendly -- I don't byte, I nybble.... UUCP: {decvax|utzoo|ihnp4|allegra|clyde}!watmath!water!watdcsu!herbie CSNET: herbie%watdcsu@waterloo.csnet ARPA: herbie%watdcsu%waterloo.csnet@csnet-relay.arpa NETNORTH, BITNET, EARN: herbie@watdcs, herbie@watdcsu