Are Alien Trying To Contact Earth? Source Of The Latest 'Alien' Signals Has Left Astronomers Baffled
Since they
were first detected 10 years ago, rare and brief bursts of cosmic radio waves (CRWs),
known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), have remained one of the biggest mysteries
in astrophysics. And the latest fast radio burst (FRBs), called FRB 150215, and
might be the most perplexing one yet.
Despite
spending the last two years using telescopes to find anything associated with
it, researchers have admitted they're still clueless about where this one came
from. Researchers from the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy first
detected FRB 150215 in 2015, and have been working since to understand its
source.
Speaking to
Gizmodo, Emily Petroff, who is leading the study, said: “We spent a lot of time
with a lot of telescopes to find anything associated with it. We got new
wavelength windows we've never gotten before. We're still trying to figure out
where this one came from.”
Fast radio
bursts, or FRBs, are radio emissions that appear temporarily and randomly,
making them not only hard to find, but also hard to study. The mystery stems
from the fact it is not known what could produce such a short and sharp burst. This
has led some to speculate they could be anything from stars colliding to
artificially created messages.

FRB 150215
can be viewed through several telescopes, but has not left any detectable
signal or trace of light
So far, 22
FRBs have been detected, but astronomers believe that there could be up to
2,000 in the Universe every day. While astronomers can usually use telescopes
to pinpoint the likely source of the burst, FRB 150215 has left the Dutch team
baffled. It can be viewed through several telescopes, but has not left any
detectable signal or trace of light.
In their
paper, published in arXiv, the researchers said: 'The burst was followed up
with 11 telescopes to search for radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutrino
emission. Neither transient nor variable emission was found to be associated
with the burst, and no repeat pulses have been observed in 17.25 hours of
observing.'
Adding to
the mystery is the fact that FRB 150215 shouldn't have been detectable from
Earth given the direction in space it is coming from. It had to pass through an
extremely dense region of the Milky Way to reach us. The galaxy's magnetic
field should have changed the way the light from the radio burst travelled –
but it didn't.
Speaking to
Gizmodo, Ms Petroff said: 'It probably travelled through some kind of hole in
the Milky Way that makes it easy to find compared to normal searches in the
galaxy.'
While some
have questioned whether FRBs are signs that aliens are trying to contact us.
Comments
Post a Comment