Research by the Arecibo Observatory Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico provides important new evidence for the mysterious impulses that emerge from the depths of space.
The unusual pulses were first detected on November 2, 2012 by instruments of the Australian Parkes Observatory radio telescope. Brief radio bursts lasted only a few thousandths of a second and later were never detected by any other observatory in the world (while on the Green Continent they were recorded as many as five times).
Scientists recorded several similar events, but the absence of any such observations associated with distant objects prompted them to believe that the observatory could collect signals emanating from sources on the territory of our planet or near it. However, it has recently been revealed that this is not the case.
An international team of scientists has found evidence from previously obtained data that these strange cosmic explosions occur approximately 10 thousand times a day and across the sky.
At the same time, the radio bursts were detected using instruments at the Arecibo Observatory, which boasts the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope, with a mirror covering 305 meters (the total area of the observatory is about 20 hectares).
Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.
Photo: vesti.ru
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The brightness and duration of these events, as well as the calculated rate at which these bursts occur, are consistent with the properties of bursts previously detected by the Parkes Telescope in Australia.
The bursts appear to be taking place somewhere outside the Milky Way galaxy. The latter conclusion was drawn from measuring an effect known as plasma dispersion. The pulses that travel through space are different from the man-made interference caused by interstellar electrons, which causes radio waves to travel slower and at lower radio frequencies.
“Our results are particularly important because they remove any doubt that these bursts are cosmic in origin,” said Victoria Kaspi, professor of astrophysics at McGill University in Montreal. "These radio waves have all the indications that they originated far beyond our galaxy."
The image of the sky in the constellation Auriga. The green circle marks the burst between supernova remnants S147 and the IC 410 star formation region (photo by Rogelio Bernal Andreo / DeepSkyColors.com).
The main mystery for astrophysicists is the cause of these radio bursts. Possible options include exotic astrophysical objects, including disappearing black holes, merging neutron stars, and flares from magnetars - such as neutron stars with very powerful magnetic fields. It is also possible that these bursts are much brighter than those observed in some pulsars.
Astrophysicists are currently working to develop a way to detect radio bursts using radio telescopes that can observe wide areas of the sky. Such devices are currently only under construction in Australia, South Africa and Canada. These and other new objects could pave the way for many new discoveries and better understanding of such mysterious cosmic phenomena.