Not so long ago, a group of astronomers led by researcher Emily Petroff of the Australian Swinburne University of Technology (Melbourne, Australia) had the opportunity to study a very strange radio signal from space of unknown origin.
In an article in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, scientists describe this event as a sudden and short-term burst of radio waves, not accompanied by light and other types of waves. In other words, scientists want to say that this radio signal was not caused by any of the phenomena known to them.
Describing the details of their research, scientists from Swinburne University of Technology explain that they were able to catch the strange radio flash thanks to the Parks Telescope, located in New South Wales, in the observatory of the Australian city of the same name. Thanks to the data obtained by the telescope, they found out that this radio signal originated about 5.5 billion light years from our planet and lasted only a few milliseconds.
However, the most interesting thing here is that, despite its short duration, the radio signal, according to preliminary estimates, had an energy equal to the energy of the Sun generated by our star for the whole day. In addition, the scientists found that the behavior of the radio signal indicates its interaction with a strong magnetic field located near the signal source. And besides, as mentioned earlier, this radio signal was not accompanied by light and other types of waves.
Scientists report that the release of a super-powerful and at the same time short-lived radio signal occurred in the region of space that is home to two black holes, but the researchers are sure that the black holes themselves are not its source.
And although the lack of information about this area of space does not allow scientists to more accurately guess the possible source of this ejection, the researchers note that the absence of light waves in the received signal allows us to discard at least one of the possible options.
“We found out that light has nothing to do with this radio signal. However, this ejection, which lasted only a few milliseconds, had a colossal energy equivalent to that which the Sun produces in a whole day,”comments astrophysicist Daniele Malezani.
“The fact that the signal does not contain traces of light and other types of waves allows us to reject a number of astronomical phenomena that are associated with such phenomena as gamma-ray emissions as a result of the death of stars and supernova formations, and which could otherwise be its source”, - adds the scientist.
Promotional video:
Emily Petroff and her colleagues also note that this strange, powerful radio signal is not the first to be recorded by telescopes and studied by researchers.
The first such super-strong radio emission was noted by scientists in 2007. After some time, the Australian Parks Telescope recorded six more similar emissions. Then another signal was caught by the Arecibo Observatory.