eta carinae, laser star.

[xirrious]

So this is old news but perhaps new to many of us here. Eta carinae, one of th largest stars we have observed, has been proven to produce uv wavelength spatial and temporally coherent light. That's right folks! The only known natural object to emit laser particles! Thoughts ? Comments?

 

[joeyss]

Yeah I read about this once. If it can happen naturally I wonder if advanced civilizations might be converting some of their star's light into a coherent laser to harvest it over longer distances in the star system? Makes you wonder what else is out there.

 

[xirrious]

Well polarization could essentially, based on concept alone, convert black body radiation into laser light, making it easier to focus and thus exploit it's energy potential. However having stars already proven to emit coherent light, statistics say there are other intelligent life forms, so how much longer before we harness this radiation, and who else out there already has? Good questions.

 

[joeyss]

Well polarization could essentially, based on concept alone, convert black body radiation into laser light, making it easier to focus and thus exploit it's energy potential. However having stars already proven to emit coherent light, statistics say there are other intelligent life forms, so how much longer before we harness this radiation, and who else out there already has? Good questions.

My yellow laser got me thinking about that since it's the same color as the monochromatic LPS sodium lamps. What if they are using that WL as it would be universally recognizable to any civilizations that have made LPS lamps. just on a much smaller scale then say a dyson sphere. Maybe they could be using visible light and we just can't pick it up cause we lack the sensitivity and we're too busy looking in the radio region. Heck they could be signalling with high powered star driven lasers and hope a space telescope picks up a narrow emission line.

 

[WizardG]

..."The only known natural object to emit laser particles"...

Not so! Mars has been observed lasing at the 10.6um line of CO2. The atmosphere of Mars is set up very nicely to be a big CO2 laser pumped by solar ultraviolet.

 

[Cyparagon]

Yes, and there are several others discussed in this thread.
http://laserpointerforums.com/f54/lasers-nature-83000.html#post1195891

 

[joeyss]

..."The only known natural object to emit laser particles"...

Not so! Mars has been observed lasing at the 10.6um line of CO2. The atmosphere of Mars is set up very nicely to be a big CO2 laser pumped by solar ultraviolet.

I know it's almost 96% co2 but it only has an average atmosphere pressure of 0.6Kpa

Venus has much more co2 so can it's upper atmosphere act like one too?

It's closer to the sun and solar radiation follows the inverse square law.

 

[xirrious]

Oh wow that goes to show how naive I am! Thanks for the link to other natural lasers. However eta carinae itself is still arguably the most powerful known natural laser source. The sheer power alone gives it some interest. Although I'll be sure to check into other atmospheric sources from extrasolar planets and even some of our own as well! Thanks!

 

[xirrious]

Thanks cyparagon for the awesome links. Always the most educational posts. I followed your thread link to an outside URL and learned a lot. Tyvm!