A team of astronomers has detected a second set of FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts) from the same location as a previous burst.
The source of the FRBs is estimated at 1.5 billion light years. Fast Radio Bursts have been detected ~60 times in the past, but what makes this unique is that this set of signals originates from the same place as previous signals were detected.
Considering the cosmically violent nature of some of the phenomena scientists speculate could cause FRBs, a repeating signal from the same location is of significant interest.
"There is a lot of speculation in the astrophysical transient community about the origin of these events and a number of theories have been put forward to explain how they are formed," Kate Maguire, a researcher at the Astrophysics Research Center at Queen’s University Belfast who had no involvement in the study, said over email.
A leading theory, however, is that the leftover cores of exploded massive stars, known as neutron stars, may be releasing the short, powerful signals, said Maguire.
Additionally
[...] these repeating radio waves show signs of "scattering" — which suggests that the waves traveled through a turbulent patch of space filled with interstellar gases. That means the signals likely came from a place where there's a denser clump of stuff, like the remnants of an exploded star (called a supernova), University of Toronto astronomer and study coauthor Cherry Ng said in a statement.
Of course, this being SoylentNews, I really don't have to say this, but,
"I can understand the public's imagination would go that way [aliens], but there are a lot of simpler explanations than extraterrestrial intelligence," said Tendulkar.
In that vein, it is possible that the FRB frequency distribution will suspiciously match that of skateboard wheels going up and down a half pipe.
(Score: 4, Funny) by redneckmother on Thursday January 10 2019, @03:41AM (2 children)
Get off my sidewalk!
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by captain normal on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:29AM
Humm...Well CHIME does look a lot like a series of half pipes,
https://chime-experiment.ca/ [chime-experiment.ca]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:06PM
No, the aliens have hoverboards, flying cars, and Mr. Fusion. WE are stuck with 2D transportation still.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Thursday January 10 2019, @03:47AM (2 children)
Wondering where I went when I wasn't there when she woke up.
When the dust settled America realized it was saved by a porn star.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @03:50AM (1 child)
So, you managed to escape her orbit. Impressive.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:35PM
Tear off the bag to achieve escape velocity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @03:51AM
Its the sound of snielas inching closer to our planet.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:01AM (1 child)
It's probably just black hole shenanigans.
Communicating over intergalactic distances would be pretty useless (without faster-than-light plot magic). A beacon can be considered a wasteful endeavor. Eventually, civilizations could learn to find life in their own galaxies and maybe nearby ones using ultra-powerful telescopes and tricks like gravitational lensing.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:38PM
> Communicating over intergalactic distances would be pretty useless
My CPU says that communicating at the speed of sound is unbearably slow too...
(Score: 5, Funny) by Knowledge Troll on Thursday January 10 2019, @04:23AM (3 children)
Look I don't want to see this metric shit in my American web browser. Can I have this in some kind of appropriate sports measurement like decabats or kilofootballs?
(Score: 3, Funny) by Sulla on Thursday January 10 2019, @01:14PM
Look im just as anti-european as anyone but even referring to the number of soccer fields is preferable to the number of hockey rinks. These Candians need to get out and stay out.
Ceterum censeo Sinae esse delendam
(Score: 3, Funny) by PartTimeZombie on Thursday January 10 2019, @07:10PM
For more sensible conversion units, refer to this. [theregister.co.uk]
The CHIME telescope is:
385.0415 NanoWales
1.9749 Football pitch (soccer variety)
(Score: 2) by dry on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:16AM
Huh? The Canadian rink is standard, 200x85 feet. The international is 60x30 metres.
(Score: 5, Funny) by ElizabethGreene on Thursday January 10 2019, @02:41PM (1 child)
How do you convert hockey rinks to libraries of Congress or another standard unit of measure?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:53PM
Depends. Are those metric or imperial hockey rinks?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:07PM (1 child)
Implying a non-natural signal was detected in space. (aka aliens)
Kind of like all of the "The Milky way and Andromeda galaxies are on a collision course" articles that conveniently left out it will happen in 1-2 billion years.
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Thursday January 10 2019, @05:56PM
What a scurrilous accusation!
In that vein, the submitted Dept. was
-.- .. .-.. .-. --- -.--/.-- .- .../.... . .-. .
(KILROY WAS HERE) I kind of like the replacement better though
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Thursday January 10 2019, @08:20PM
If we can't build a launching laser, we're toast when they make the sun explode.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 11 2019, @03:19PM
I couldn't find it in the summary. How many chirps per minute is the signal?