Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

SPACE | Giant telescope picks up mysterious signals from deep space

0

Chinese astronomers have detected repeated fast radio bursts (FRB) – mysterious signals believed to be from a source about 3 billion light years from Earth – with the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built.

cosmic rays

BEIJING, CHINA — Chinese astronomers have detected repeated fast radio bursts (FRB) – mysterious signals believed to be from a source about 3 billion light years from Earth – with the largest and most sensitive radio telescope ever built.

Scientists detected the signals with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) and they are carefully cross-checking and processing them, according to researchers at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC).

FRBs are the brightest bursts known in the universe. They are called “fast” because these blips are very short, only several milliseconds in duration. But there is no reasonable explanation for their origin.

The detection of the repeated bursts might help shed light on the origin and physical mechanisms of FRBs, said researchers.

Chinese scientists have installed a highly sensitive FRB backend on a 19-beam receiver on the giant telescope, and used it to observe an FRB source named FRB121102, which was first discovered by the Arecibo Observatory in 2015.

From late August to the beginning of September, more than 100 bursts were detected from FRB121102, the highest number of bursts ever detected so far.

The FRB backend system has high-efficiency real-time pulse capture capability, and can observe in parallel with most observation tasks. It will play an important role in the discovery of new FRBs, improving the position accuracy and capturing the high-resolution absorption lines generated by FRBs in real time, researchers said.

Given the significance of this source and its now apparent active state, FAST is carrying out more monitoring. Chinese astronomers encouraged counterparts in other countries to conduct more observations with their facilities.

Located in a naturally deep and round karst depression in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, FAST was completed in September 2016 and is due to start regular operations this month.

Astronomers from more than 10 countries and regions are making observation plans for FAST in order to best apply the unprecedented power of the telescope, going beyond what has been done by other telescopes in the past.

They have proposed ambitious observation objectives for the telescope, such as gravitational waves, exoplanets, ultra-high-energy cosmic rays and interstellar matter, to advance human knowledge of astronomy, astrophysics and fundamental physics.

Scientists believe more discoveries will be made with FAST.

xinhua
by Xinhua News Agency
Xinhua News Agency at Xinhua News Agency | Website

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *