Andrew Griffin : The Independent, UK : 19 Jan 2015
© The Independent, UK
The mysterious ‘blitzar’ has been heard since 2007, but scientists have caught it live for the first time.
The mysterious ‘blitzar’ has been heard since 2007, but scientists have caught it live for the first time.
As live performances go, a mysterious pulse of radio waves emanating from deep in the universe has to be up with the greats. And scientists have finally caught it. The blitzars last only about a millisecond - during which time they give out as much energy as the sun does in a million years, according to the New Scientist - and have only ever been heard on historical data. The source must be "huge, cataclysmic and up to 5.5 billion light years away," one scientist told the New Scientist.
But a team of scientists from Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia has identified one of them live, as it happened.
But a team of scientists from Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia has identified one of them live, as it happened.
© Swinburne Astronomy Productions
A mysterious "fast radio burst" was seen for the first time in real time by astronomers,
a strange phenomenon whose origins have yet to be discovered, new research finds.
[Pictured: An illustration of CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope receiving the polarized signal from the new 'fast radio burst'.]
A mysterious "fast radio burst" was seen for the first time in real time by astronomers,
a strange phenomenon whose origins have yet to be discovered, new research finds.
[Pictured: An illustration of CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope receiving the polarized signal from the new 'fast radio burst'.]
Nobody really knows where the blitzars come from - a top contender is a huge neutron star that should have given way to a black hole, but didn't - but the new findings are likely to help scientists find out.
When the blitzar was spotted by a team led by Emily Petroff, other telescopes were turned towards the source, helping to study the aftereffects. They didn't see any afterglow - ruling out some of the possible sources such as a supernova.
Scientists hope that they will soon discover another blitzar in a different frequency range. That will allow them to conclusively associate it with something and will help pin it down to a specific source.
http://www.sott.net/article/291553-Mysterious-radio-burst-seen-in-real-time
When the blitzar was spotted by a team led by Emily Petroff, other telescopes were turned towards the source, helping to study the aftereffects. They didn't see any afterglow - ruling out some of the possible sources such as a supernova.
Scientists hope that they will soon discover another blitzar in a different frequency range. That will allow them to conclusively associate it with something and will help pin it down to a specific source.
http://www.sott.net/article/291553-Mysterious-radio-burst-seen-in-real-time
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