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Astronomers Record Mystery Radio Signals From 5.5 Billion Light Years Away

sarahnaomi writes For the first time ever, astronomers have captured an enormous radio wave burst in real time, bringing us one step closer to understanding their origins. These fleeting eruptions, called blitzars or FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts), are truly bizarre cosmic phenomena. In the span of a millisecond, they emit as much radiation as the Sun does over a million years. But unlike other super-luminous events that span multiple wavelengths—gamma ray bursts or supernovae, for example—blitzars emit all that energy in a tiny band of the radio light spectrum. Adding to the mystery is the rarity of blitzar sightings. Since these bursts were first discovered in 2007 with Australia's Parkes Telescope, ten have been identified, the latest of which was the first to be imaged in real time.

7 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. This has been know for a while... by beheaderaswp · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is obviously an advanced data stream which we are intercepting. Civilizations who do not have control over quantum entanglement, Use compressed radio bursts at unbelievable magnitude to transfer massive amounts of information across multiple civilizations simultaneously.

    This has been known for about 10 years. But suppressed due to it;s sensitive nature.

    Attempts to decode the messages have only been marginally successful. The one small decoded message translated into English is roughly: "Never going to give..."

    The rest of the message can only be guessed at.

    --
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    1. Re:This has been know for a while... by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're not trying hard enough then. :-) One of the benefits of excellent karma is that you can bring out the flamethrower to crisp up some fool on occasion without too many consequences.

      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    2. Re:This has been know for a while... by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, I was duped into watching LOST too.

      Those aliens are going to be pissed.

  2. Re:Boom. Boom. Boom. Another one bite's the dust.. by MozeeToby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now now, we all know vacuum stabilization events travel out from their sources at the speed of light, if it were to happen it would be against the laws of physics to see it coming.

    More interesting is one of the actual proposed explanations. A massive spinning magnetron gradually slowing down until centrifugal force can't keep it from collapsing into a black hole anymore. And when the source of the magnetic field suddenly gets cut off from the outside universe by being engulfed by the event horizon, the magnetic field has no where to go but... out. The most powerful magnetic field in the universe getting converted almost instantly to energy; creating a spark that lasts seconds and outputs more energy than the sun has in the past million years.

  3. Re:WTF by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you had read the article, you would know that until now, they had to sift through old data to find these things, so they couldn't ask other radio-telescopes to look at it. This time the data was analyzed in real time and triggered an alarm so other radio-telescopes could look at it in other wavelengths, etc.

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  4. Only Radio, Huh? by avgjoe62 · · Score: 5, Funny

    But unlike other super-luminous events that span multiple wavelengths—gamma ray bursts or supernovae, for example—blitzars emit all that energy in a tiny band of the radio light spectrum.

    Why is this a mystery? 5.5 Billion years ago, did anyone have anything other than a radio? It wasn't like they could use a satellite dish or something...

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  5. Re:Signal? by Deadstick · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Reasonable nitpick, but yes: "signal" in the signal processing context means a detected quantity whose variations may tell you something. Vibrations in the earth, detected by a seismograph, are signals.