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Astronomers Pinpoint Location of Mysterious Cosmic Radio Bursts (bbc.com)
New submitter Netdoctor writes: Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) are massively powerful short-lived radio bursts from far-away sources, and so far a number of theories exist on what generates them. Recently several were detected in the same general location, which adds to the mystery, as any of these pulses would be powerful enough to destroy a source. Since this group of FRBs were detected with single radio telescope dishes, the exact location was difficult to pinpoint. BBC reports here with results from the Very Large Array in New Mexico being trained on the source. From the report: "Outlining their work at a major conference, astronomers say they have now traced the source of one of these bursts to a different galaxy. Dr Chatterjee, from Cornell University, New York, and colleagues used a multi-antenna radio telescope called the Very Large Array (VLA), which had sufficient resolution to precisely determine the location of a flash known as FRB 121102. In 83 hours of observing time over six months in 2016, the VLA detected nine bursts from FRB 121102. In addition to detecting the bright bursts from FRB 121102, the team's observations also revealed an ongoing, persistent source of weaker radio emission in the same region. The flashes and the persistent source must be within 100 light-years of each other, and scientists think they are likely to be either the same object or physically associated with one another. He said some features of the radio source resembled those associated with large black holes. But he said these were typically found only in large galaxies."
I didn't know there were Samsung Galaxy phones in outer space...
To me it felt like a disturbance in the force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
-- Make America hate again!
The signal was emitted 3 billions years ago...
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Scientists now searching for equally mysterious WPA or WEP key.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
Are the bursts periodic? If the hypothesis of a neutron star orbiting a black hole is correct, it suggests there should be not only a repeating series of bursts, but they should also be periodic. It's widely reported that the bursts are repeating, but I have yet to see any discussion of them being periodic. That may provide some clues as to the mechanism responsible.
Regarding the alien speculation from some (non-science) publications, it's easy to assume that aliens are responsible for unexplained radio signals. When repeating radio signals with a period of 1.33 seconds were discovered in 1967, it was assumed by many to be signals from aliens. However, it is now accepted that jets of electromagnetic radiation from a rotating neutron star are responsible for such signals, and the phenomenon is now known as a pulsar. A lot of caution is warranted before advancing such a hypothesis.
Obiously a war between alien races. Let's get involved!
To within 100 light years!
Science!
Rick B.
It's obviously an advertisement for Universal Pizza trumpeting their new intergalactic pizza delivery service. That's one of the few signals powerful enough to cut through the galactic noise.
The only other thing it might be is a "free beer while supplies last" beacon, which would also be powerful enough to attract attention of all sentient beings.
That is all.
They can have em!
The bursts are probably T's intergalactic tweets:
"Vader is a loser. Real men don't need helmets and don't breath through vacuum cleaners. My hair is my helmet, and it's very real, by the way. Very real."
"I'm gonna build my own black hole and make the Klingons pay for it. Those Klingons don't send us their best people, too many criminals. And they smell."
"The EM Drive is a Chinese conspiracy to fleece us so we pay for fake Galactic Warming fixes. It's a job killer for us."
"Dark matter is also fake, by the way. Smart people tell me galaxies are supposed to rotate biggly on the outside; it's what they do. They negotiated a nice deal with gravity to swing wide. Gravity is open to deals if you know how."
"R2D2's kind took our jobs! He's trash-can with wheels. Put garbage in him, he shouldn't be working. Do you let your trash-can do your taxes, or your toilet mow the lawn? Weeeak."
Table-ized A.I.
That light from over 6,000 years ago hit earth yet the objects are said to be 100 million light years apart?! Impossible
http://saveie6.com/