American astrophysicists have found a life-threatening component in fast radio bursts - single extremely powerful radio pulses with a duration of several milliseconds that are not explained by modern science. The study is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, briefly reported by EurekAlert!..
Scientists have found that fast radio bursts are accompanied by gamma-ray bursts, whose energies can be a billion times higher than that for the radio frequency range. This makes it possible to compare an alien signal with a supernova explosion. If such an object were located near the Earth, it would destroy life on the planet.
Scientists analyzed the observations of the space radio telescope Swift, which registered a gamma-ray burst. It turned out to be associated with FRB 131104, a fast radio burst observed on November 4, 2013. The duration of the radiation was two to six minutes, which is orders of magnitude longer than the observation time of the radio pulse.
The first fast radio pulse was detected in 2001 by the Parks radio telescope of the Australian State Scientific and Applied Research Association, the data from which were processed only by 2007. Since then, more than 10 such signals have been confirmed. Scientists believe their likely source is a neutron star or aliens.
