Astronomers May Be Closing in on Source of Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts (theguardian.com) 57
Astronomers appear to be closing in on the source of enigmatic radio pulses emanating from space that have become the subject of intense scientific speculation. From a new report: Previous candidates for the origin of the fleeting blasts of radiation -- known as fast radio bursts, or FRBs -- have included exploding stars, the reverberations of weird objects called cosmic strings or even distant beacons from interstellar alien spaceships. Now, new observations provide backing for a scenario involving a rapidly rotating neutron star cocooned by an ultra-powerful magnetic field. The explanation is more orthodox than some of the alternatives offered, but could point astronomers towards some of the most extreme magnetic environments in the known universe.
"Our preferred model is that they are coming from a neutron star ... that could be just 10 or 20 years old in an extreme magnetic environment," said Jason Hessels, a co-author of the new paper and astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Dutch town of Dwingeloo. Fast radio bursts have perplexed astronomers ever since the signals were discovered in 2007 in earlier observation data from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. About 30 of these objects have been discovered deep in space since the first was detected, all but one burping out a cataclysmic radio pulse exactly once and then disappearing into the night. Only one burster, known as FRB121102, after the date it was discovered (Nov. 2, 2012), has repeated itself, hundreds of times now.
"Our preferred model is that they are coming from a neutron star ... that could be just 10 or 20 years old in an extreme magnetic environment," said Jason Hessels, a co-author of the new paper and astronomer at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy in the Dutch town of Dwingeloo. Fast radio bursts have perplexed astronomers ever since the signals were discovered in 2007 in earlier observation data from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. About 30 of these objects have been discovered deep in space since the first was detected, all but one burping out a cataclysmic radio pulse exactly once and then disappearing into the night. Only one burster, known as FRB121102, after the date it was discovered (Nov. 2, 2012), has repeated itself, hundreds of times now.
You forgot to list ... (Score:4, Funny)
Previous candidates for the origin of the fleeting blasts of radiation -- known as fast radio bursts, or FRBs -- have included exploding stars, the reverberations of weird objects called cosmic strings or even distant beacons from interstellar alien spaceships.
You forgot to list the microwave oven that was in the break room in the next building. That was at the radio observatory in West Virginia, if I recall correctly.
Re:You forgot to list ... (Score:5, Funny)
Come to think of it many UFO reports say the ship disappeared accompanied by a mysterious "Ding" sound.
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really? what I heard was similar to popping popcorn
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That popping was neurons being irradiated with MIB memory eraser rays.
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popping neurons smell like hot margarine and butter then, some garlic salt on them would be perfect
Re:You forgot to list ... (Score:4, Informative)
That was Parkes.
And they were also "perytons" rather than FRBs.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.021... [arxiv.org]
Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope
"Perytons" are millisecond-duration transients of terrestrial origin, whose frequency-swept emission mimics the dispersion of an astrophysical pulse that has propagated through tenuous cold plasma. In fact, their similarity to FRB 010724 had previously cast a shadow over the interpretation of "fast radio bursts," which otherwise appear to be of extragalactic origin. Until now, the physical origin of the dispersion-mimicking perytons had remained a mystery. We have identified strong out-of-band emission at 2.3--2.5 GHz associated with several peryton events. Subsequent tests revealed that a peryton can be generated at 1.4 GHz when a microwave oven door is opened prematurely and the telescope is at an appropriate relative angle. Radio emission escaping from microwave ovens during the magnetron shut-down phase neatly explain all of the observed properties of the peryton signals. Now that the peryton source has been identified, we furthermore demonstrate that the microwaves on site could not have caused FRB 010724. This and other distinct observational differences show that FRBs are excellent candidates for genuine extragalactic transients.
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Previous candidates for the origin of the fleeting blasts of radiation -- known as fast radio bursts, or FRBs -- have included exploding stars, the reverberations of weird objects called cosmic strings or even distant beacons from interstellar alien spaceships.
You forgot to list the microwave oven that was in the break room in the next building. That was at the radio observatory in West Virginia, if I recall correctly.
Your UFO is a hot burrito!
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It was, at least originally.
The earlier name for Fast Radio Bursts (FaRBs) was Fast Radio Transients (FaRTs). The theory was that neutrino stars ate too many bean burritos too quickly and thus emitted FaRTs. Hey, just try to prove that degenerate matter in a neutrino star didn't start out as a burrito...
This bit of Alternative Science brought to you by Old El Paso, makers of fine (burp! squeak!) bean burritos!
Stock photo (Score:5, Insightful)
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Hey, I like imagining a bolt of lightning kiloparsecs long. It is, after all, winter in the northern hemisphere, and I'm sure somewhere in the universe there are some pretty damn big cats rubbing up against stuff.
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The "artistâ(TM)s impression of a flash from FRB 121102" photo in the article is both hilarious and scary that this is how science is reported.
What's scary is how accurately that star is to be able to hit the radio telescope, especially since the radio signal is so strong that it's visible!
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Which if you stop and think about it, isn't that surprising.
The universe is vast. Pretty much anything we can think of in terms of the lifecycle of stars and galaxies has probably happened somewhere, and likely many many things we can't think of or haven't yet figured out. This is over a span of billions of years.
With billions and billions of galaxies, each wi
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What's scary is how accurately that star is to be able to hit the radio telescope, especially since the radio signal is so strong that it's visible!
Well a dish of that size is probably pretty well grounded.
Re:Stock photo (Score:5, Funny)
It's an artist's impression, ffs, not an autist's impression. What do you expect an artist to do, draw nothing?
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That's what happens when you don't use a surge protector.
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We made up for it by whacking ourselves with a stick to get double vision and see 12. Without TV and Internet we improvised our entertainment. Don't even ask about the goats.
Alien dubstep (Score:2)
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It's just alien music, we are just not hip enough to understand...
The Green Tentacle finally got the band going...
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Careful, Clingons aggressively enforce their copyright laws.
That’s the problem with science (Score:5, Insightful)
The explanation is more orthodox than some of the alternatives offered...
Unfortunately, no matter how extraordinary, scientific observations rarely (if ever) accommodate exciting far-fetched theories, leading disaffected audiences back to television...
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The explanation is more orthodox than some of the alternatives offered...
Unfortunately, no matter how extraordinary, scientific observations rarely (if ever) accommodate exciting far-fetched theories, leading disaffected audiences back to television...
Oh yes they do. It may seem mundane and pointless repeated observations, but sometimes such things lead to huge advances in understanding, especially when the observed doesn't match the expected results, or when the results unexpectedly change.
The discovery of atomic number was such a thing, where using X-Rays an aspiring young chemist named Moseley armed with an X-Ray tube and a crystal refractor proved that Mendeleev's periodic table actually made sense.
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The reason you believe all this shit, and it is just that - meaningless fucking word salad shit, is because you're fucking stupid.
The scientific consensus is different from your opinion on many of these subjects. And it's not the scientific consensus that's wrong. It's you. Again, because you're fucking stupid.
Hope this helps.
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Solved! (Score:1)
They've been traced to the Twitter account of a large orange being.
Numbers Stations (Score:2)
We'd better round up all suspected aliens from 7-11 stores and use any means necessary to get their one-time pads.
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It's almost as if the scientific process itself is designed to remove bias. And, when executed properly, that's exactly what it does.
But you go ahead and pretend that science doesn't work because someone once had an experiment give a false positive because of a microwave.
My brain can't absorb this (Score:2)
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Far more enlightened view on the subject than astronomers have is provided by Douglas Adams:
"Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space."
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