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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....

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