Scientists managed to capture mysterious and repetitive signals directly from deep space. Astronomers from Swinburne University of Technology in Australia shared their observations.
The researchers began to study the fast radio bursts (FRB), which appear in space and are radio signals with a huge burst of radio-magnetic energy. The power of such a burst equals the power of hundreds of millions of Suns, despite the fact that the flash lasts only a millisecond. According to Gamebomb.ru, in total, more than 150 such outbreaks have been detected so far, the main difference of which is whether their signal is repeated or not. Astronomer Pravir Kumar of Swinburne University and his colleagues used the ASCAP radio telescope located in Australia and began to monitor 20 radio bursts (FRB) to find signs of repeated signals. “For 12 thousand hours we did not find a single repeated signal!”, – said Pravir Kumar. Then the researchers turned their attention to a particularly bright radio burst called FRB 171019.
It is noted that the area of the sky where the radio burst FRB 171019 is located is well known to scientists. Researchers received for their observations one of the most powerful telescopes in the world – the Green Bank telescope in the United States and the Parkes Observatory radio telescope in Australia. As a result, thanks to the Green Bank equipment, astronomers managed to fix two weak repeating signals. As Pravir Kumar noted, it was a very exciting moment. After that, the team also recorded the third signal from FRB 171019. According to scientists, this means that repeated fast radio bursts can occur much more often, and many of them can occur outside the detection range of those devices that were used to track them. It is noted that repeated signals from FRB 171019 are approximately 590 times weaker than the burst detected by the ASKAP radio telescope (ASCAP).
Researchers say they still cannot answer the question of what causes such repeated signals. It is possible that they are similar to flares of magnetars – neutron stars with an exceptionally strong magnetic field. However, scientists note that fast radio burst (FRB) flashes are 100 billion times brighter than magnetars. Now astronomers have to do further research to understand what is the relationship between repeated and single flashes.
According to Gamebomb.ru, scientists do not yet have an exact answer about exactly how fast radio bursts are formed. There are various hypotheses, according to one of which FRB may be a manifestation of the activity of extraterrestrial civilizations.
