What do astromers here when a star shoots radio waves towards earth?

Question

What do astromers here when a star shoots radio waves towards earth?

Answer 1

What is an astromer ?

Answer 2

It sounds like static!

Answer 3

It could be simple noise ["static"], but it can also be a sting of pulses, which would sound like a tone.

Pulsars emit radio pulses, and are thought to be rapidly spinning neutron stars with hot spots that radiate radio waves continuously. But since they spin, the beam is pointed at us only part of the time, leading to pulses.

Answer 4

Static just like the radio noise from the sun.

HTH

Charles

Answer 5

Are you talking about natural radio emissions or one of intelligent origin.  Natural radio frequencies are studied by radio astronomers.  If an unusual signal were picked up, several radio telescopes might be tasked to that source.  Data would be collected and analyzed.  Hypotheses would be formulated and debate would take place.  If it was decided that the situation merited it, prolonged data collection would take place.  Graduate students would be assigned donkey work, others might use the information for dissertations and perhaps some papers might be written for scientific journals.  If there were conflicting theories between major players, some information might make its way to popular scientific magazines or even the regular media.  

   If you are talking about artificial signals, the SETI antennas would have to pick it up, their computers would have to recognize the signal as being artificial.  Possibly there would be some notification to the press if confidence was high.  Then it gets hard.  Alien languages are likely to be VERY hard to understand.  Possibly impossible.  It sort of depends on how much information you can snare from space and if the aliens are actually trying to talk to you.  In this case the message would probably start mathematically.  But having conversations at interstellar distances is not a job the the impatient.  Decades or centuries might pass between exchanges.  This is a really interesting subject.  Back in the late 60s there used to be quite a bit written about this topic.  I haven't seen anything lately.  

Answer 6

It sounds like static EXCEPT that if you listen to a pulsar, the signal can be very regular (and fast).

Jocelyn Bell (the woman who discovered pulsars) made us hear a few recordings of pulsars.  For the slow ones (still around 10 rpm), she says they sound like farm-tractor engines.

Pulsars around 30 rpm sound almost exactly like when one listens to a frequency that is normally reserved for TV image broadcast (in North America)

Answer 7

Star says "Bzzzt!  Hsssss!  Crackle!   Drake is a hack! Hssst!  Bzzzz!"

Answer 8

First spelling corrections...

ASTRONOMERS not astromers

HEAR (as in listen) not "here" (as in a location, like place it here)

I have never had the personal opportunity to visit a Radio

Telescope Site and listen to the broad range of noise signals

that come from stars or the Sun. I have, however, spent hundreds

of hours on HF and VHF Radio Bands and witnessed the high

levels of continual static and energy bursts resulting from solar

activity on our Sun.

One must consider that the noise does not sound like a violin string vibrating. Rather it is more like a huge batch of pop corn popping at

a sound level which varies from time to time. Sometimes you cannot hear anything from your desired station due to the high level of noise.

sometimes you can get bits and pieces of information and the rest is lost in the noise.

Now, from a distant star, there would be no desired station to tune into. So you would be listening to pure noise over a wide frequency spectrum. This noise is the result of radioactive processes and the

bursts of plazma from the surface of the radioactive object. Sounds

most likely range from slow crashes to rapid popping and on to a hash like raspy sound...all of this is determined by the type of detector used within the station receiver you are listening to. Some solar noise I have heard was as bad as a loud BUZZ extending all the way across some particular radio band.      

  

Answer 9

When the radio frequencies are turned into soundwaves, it sounds like static.

In fact, you can do this yourself - if you don't have cable or satellite TV, tune to a channel that no nearby TV station is broadcasting on... the static you hear & see on the screen is due to random radiowaves that your TV antenna picks up & translates into sound and pictures.