Posted on 09/09/2019 11:29:53 AM PDT by Red Badger
BEIJING, Sept. 9 (Xinhua) -- Chinese astronomers have detected repeated fast radio bursts (FRB) - mysterious signals believed to be from a source about 3 billion light years from Earth - with the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built.
Scientists detected the signals with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) and they are carefully cross-checking and processing them, according to researchers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC).
FRBs are the brightest bursts known in the universe. They are called "fast" because these blips are very short, only several milliseconds in duration. But there is no reasonable explanation for their origin.
The detection of the repeated bursts might help shed light on the origin and physical mechanisms of FRBs, said researchers.
Chinese scientists have installed a highly sensitive FRB backend on a 19-beam receiver on the giant telescope, and used it to observe an FRB source named FRB121102, which was first discovered by the Arecibo Observatory in 2015.
From late August to the beginning of September, more than 100 bursts were detected from FRB121102, the highest number of bursts ever detected so far.
The FRB backend system has high-efficiency real-time pulse capture capability, and can observe in parallel with most observation tasks. It will play an important role in the discovery of new FRBs, improving the position accuracy and capturing the high-resolution absorption lines generated by FRBs in real time, researchers said.
Given the significance of this source and its now apparent active state, FAST is carrying out more monitoring. Chinese astronomers encouraged counterparts in other countries to conduct more observations with their facilities.
Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in southwest China's Guizhou Province, FAST was completed in September 2016 and is due to start regular operations this month.
Astronomers from more than 10 countries and regions are making observation plans for FAST in order to best apply the unprecedented power of the telescope, going beyond what has been done by other telescopes in the past.
They have proposed ambitious observation objectives for the telescope, such as gravitational waves, exoplanets, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and interstellar matter, to advance human knowledge of astronomy, astrophysics and fundamental physics.
Scientists believe more discoveries will be made with FAST.
Can someone check to see if they’re being sent by Warner Brothers cartoons?
Just Darth Vader blowing up weaker planets. Of course, now that he knows we’re here....
Should answer back but that might take a while.
We should put them in a phone tree. Press 1 if you are an alien...
There was another article saying that these bursts were not coming from deep space but were bouncing off stuff flying in front of the telescope and other radio dishes...hence the short burst.
My money is on this theory.
They’re just watching a war between planets 10,000 years ago.
I was talking to an electrical engineer with a government agency who was involved with SETI for a while. He said that if a planet took the equivalent of all the energy on earth and directed it into a beam pointed directly at us, and we had directed all of our resources at building a sensor directly pointed at that planet, we still wouldn’t pick up anything.
But no one suspected perytons were coming from the lunch room, until astronomer Emily Petroff decided to install a real-time radio interference monitor at the Parkes telescope.
National Geographic’s Nadia Drake describes what happened next: In January, the telescope detected three of the [peryton] signals – and the interference monitor picked up three simultaneous interference signatures. The team recognized the interloping frequencies as possibly belonging to a microwave oven.
When Petroff and her colleagues tested their hypothesis, they found they could create perytons on demand simply by opening the oven door before the timer had dinged.
Don't forget the tea.
Details, details....
Besides, the Chinese LIE a lot.
What? No Bigfoot?????...................
He's there, you can't see him because he's hiding in the forest behind the lake.
The pizza will be cold by the time it arrives there.
rwood
If your cat happened to land in Chingchang it is now probably one of the main ingredients in chopsuey. (We nebbah see yoh cat! You no ask any moah!)
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