Astronomers have confirmed the extraterrestrial nature of the “radio alien”
MOSCOW, 4 APR — RIA Novosti. Mysterious ultrafast radiospace, the nature of which remains a mystery to astronomers, there beyond Earth and probably our entire Galaxy as a whole, according to the article, accepted for publication in the journal MNRAS.
“It is possible that the strangest explanation for these outbreaks is that they are the signals of aliens. Understanding, whence come to us these flashes is the key to finding the object that produces them. While only one particular surge was associated with a distant galaxy. We expect that our interferometer Molonglo will help you find sources for other flashes,” — says Manish Caleb (Caleb Manisha) from the Australian National University in Canberra.
Are we alone in the Universe?
For the first time about the existence of a mysterious flares of radio emission (fast radio burst FRB) astronomers began in 2007, when they were accidentally discovered during observations of radio pulsars using the Parkes telescope (Australia).
In subsequent years, scientists were able to find traces of nine of these bursts, the comparison of which showed that they might have an artificial origin, and even potentially be signals of extraterrestrial civilizations due to the unexplained periodicity in their structure.
Last spring, scientists have found that the source of one of such FRB-flares were an elliptical galaxy located 6 billion light years from the milky Way that caused them to conclude that such outbursts are born during the merging of neutron stars or other compact objects, turning into a black hole.
As Caleb says, this discovery did not convince many scientists in the “extraterrestrial” origin of outbreaks, as only one of them was localized with high precision.
Besides, it is very similar to FRB-strong, so-called Puritani, was not generated by “aliens” or objects in space, and microwaves in the Australian Parkes Observatory where they were discovered about ten years ago.
Caleb and her colleagues confirmed that the FRB-flash actually arise in deep space, not on Earth, catching a few new signals of this type and study their spectrum using the radio telescope-interferometer Molonglo, South Australia. Interferometers, as the scientists explain, are a special “virtual” radiomarelli enormous size, that astronomers are “harvested” by combining the signal from several individual telescopes in different parts of the Earth or even outer space.
Dark rationibus
Using the interferometer, the researchers hoped not only to prove that FRB signals are not born within the observatories that have been detected in the past, but to find its source, using a giant sensitivity and the size of the “virtual plates” Molonglo. The idea was simple enough — if FRB-flash was born on the Earth, then the interferometer would not have seen them, as it can capture the radio signals that are born at a height of not less than a thousand kilometers from the planet’s surface.
A total of Caleb and her colleagues managed to capture the birth of three radiospire, and accurately measure their range and to determine that they originated in outer space and not on Earth — in the constellation of Hydra, the Keel and Stern.
None of these outbreaks are not repeated, which did not allow scientists to accurately determine what galaxy they originated, but they managed to calculate how many of these “alien signals” must fall to Earth every day — about 78 FRB bursts.
This discovery was a big surprise for astronomers, since the frequency of such outbreaks recorded in the Parkes telescope, was about 100 times lower. Why this is so, scientists don’t know, but they assume that this is due to very distant sources for most FRB-flashes, which the Parkes telescope just can’t see because of the lower sensitivity.
What causes these mysterious bursts? The answer to this question became clearer, however, the team of Caleb suggests that these data testify rather in favor of the fact that the sources of these outbreaks are pulsars, and merging black holes or gamma ray bursts, how do you think other scientists. In any case, as acknowledged by astrophysicists, the exact answer to this question we will receive only when will be localized sources for at least several FRB-outbreaks that required a large amount of time.