This is not the first scientific publication about mysterious signals from outer space, but this radio-burst discovery deepens astrophysics mystery!
Scientists have recently captured, using the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, the first “fast radio burst”, or mysterious pulses that appear to come from deep in outer space, in the Northern hemisphere of the sky.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are bright flashes of radio waves that last only a few thousandths of a second.
According to this new study, the millisecond-duration radio bursts “[…] have been interpreted as arising from a population of extragalactic sources deep within the intergalactic medium; they may also be linked to new source classes […]“
These are the first fast radio bursts from an extragalactic source detected in the northern hemisphere and with another telescope than the Parkes radio telescope. This is probably also one of the many reasons why scientists are concerned about the astrophysical nature of these weird alien pulses.
Another weird aspect of this new discovery is the inverted spectrum of the radio sparks (receiver?). However, FRB 121102 (name of this new strange alien fast radio signal) has the same brightness, duration, and event rate than those previously detected at Parkes astrophysics observatory.
This radio-burst discovery which deepens astrophysics mystery was published in the last online issue of The Astrophysical Journal.
[…] Puerto Rico were monitoring the Arecibo telescope when they stumbled upon something startling. A split-second burst of radio waves coming from the vast void of deep space has the astronomy field abuzz, and wondering if its origin […]