Australian Radio Telescope Captures Strange Signals From Space
Ashley Allen / 9 years ago
Scientists from Melbourne’s Swinburne University have detected alien radio signals from space in real time. The signals were captured by the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, famously part of the communications network that helped relay the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing footage for TV broadcast around the world.
Emily Petroff, lead researcher at Swinburne University, was excited by the discovery, saying, “Fast radio bursts only last as long as it takes a human to blink their eye. That is what makes this discovery so exciting.”
“Because we were able to catch the act, as opposed to existing data sets, we were able to reveal that the radiation produced by FRB was more than 20 per cent circularly polarised and this suggests there were strong magnetic fields near the source.”
The waves picked up by the Parkes telescope were circular in shape, meaning the signal was on two planes – signals from Earth are commonly only one plane.
“There are two competing models to explain the phenomenon,” Petroff said.
“One suggests it is caused by the collapse or explosion of a star in other another galaxy, while the other suggests it comes from some sort of energy flaring from a neutron star.”
“However, both of these could be incorrect and it could be something entirely different.”
Source: news.com.au
