8/26/2023 0 Comments Radio signal from space 2020![]() The search began in 2020, when Hurley-Walker assembled a team to map radio waves in the universe using data collected in 2018 by the Murchison Widefield Array, a radio telescope in the West Australian Outback. "‘It’s just every 18.18 minutes, like clockwork,’ - ICRAR Astronomer Natasha Hurley-Walker " More research is needed to figure out what’s causing the bursts of energy, but the astronomers think it could be a so-called magnetar, which is a special type of “dead” star with an ultrastrong magnetic field.Ī repeating radio signal in space may cause some to think it’s a dispatch from aliens, but Hurley-Walker said the observations spanned a wide range of frequencies, which indicates that they have a natural origin and aren’t some artificial signal. Radio transients hadn’t previously been detected appearing and disappearing over a few hours, Dr Hurley-Walker said. Similar occurrences have been seen before, but usually as very quick events that flash on and off within seconds or milliseconds or as longer pulses that last days. The star icon shows the position of the mysterious repeating transient. A new view of the Milky Way from the Murchison Widefield Array, with the lowest frequencies in red, the middle frequencies in green and the highest frequencies in blue. The researchers, who had never seen this occurrence this before, detailed the finding in a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. “It was kind of spooky for an astronomer because there’s nothing known in the sky that does that,” International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Australia (ICRAR) astronomer Natasha Hurley-Walker said in a statement. In a patch of sky monitored continuously over 24 hours, the scientists observed something known as a radio transient, which refers to an object that periodically releases brief flashes of radio signals, as if it’s switching on and off in space. That way, they’ll know if this kind of periodicity is the exception or routine behavior.Watch the latest News on Channel 7 or stream for free on 7plus > The researchers believe that future observations could help them determine if other repeating fast radio bursts have a pattern. The more bursts they can trace, the better they may be able to use the signals to map how matter is distributed across the universe. Understanding fast radio bursts can also help astronomers learn more about the universe itself. The interaction between these two, and the wind coming off of the OB-type star, could factor into the cause of the repeating FRB’s pattern. OB-type stars are short-lived hot, massive stars. Their diameters are comparable to the size of a city like Chicago or Atlanta, but they are incredibly dense, with masses bigger than that of our sun. Neutron stars are the smallest in the universe, the remnants of supernovae. The authors of another paper, who consulted with the researchers who discovered the pattern, suggest the cause could be coming from a neutron star and early OB-type star binary system. ![]() In the paper, the researchers consider the possible causes, like the orbital motion of a star or an object that acts as a companion in the outskirts of the galaxy. CSIRO/Dr Andrew HowellsĪ mysterious fast radio burst was traced to a galaxy 3.6 billion light-years away ![]() The KECK, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy. Artist's impression of CSIRO's Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location.
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