First seen by change in 2007, astronomers have come across something new – brief bursts of radio waves from deep space, lasting only a few milliseconds. Up to now the Parkes Radio Telescope in Easter Australia has recorded six bursts, and the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico has recorded one. But this discovery has been found sifting through archive data, and finding them long after they have occurred.
Now a brief and mysterious burst from an unknown source, estimated to be 5.5 billion light years away, has been observed live for the first time.
John Mulchaey, acting director of the Carnegie Observatories, said: "These events are one of the biggest mysteries in the Universe. Until now, astronomers were not able to catch one of these events in the act."
Daniele Malesani, astrophysicist at the Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen says:
“We found out what it wasn’t. The burst could have hurled out as much energy in a few milliseconds as the Sun does in an entire day. But the fact that we did not see light in other wavelengths eliminates a number of astronomical phenomena that are associated with violent events such as gamma-ray bursts from exploding stars and supernovae, which were otherwise candidates for the burst.”
“The theories are now that the radio wave burst might be linked to a very compact type of object – such as neutron stars or black holes and the bursts could be connected to collisions or ‘star quakes’. Now we know more about what we should be looking for.”
Now a brief and mysterious burst from an unknown source, estimated to be 5.5 billion light years away, has been observed live for the first time.
John Mulchaey, acting director of the Carnegie Observatories, said: "These events are one of the biggest mysteries in the Universe. Until now, astronomers were not able to catch one of these events in the act."
Daniele Malesani, astrophysicist at the Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen says:
“We found out what it wasn’t. The burst could have hurled out as much energy in a few milliseconds as the Sun does in an entire day. But the fact that we did not see light in other wavelengths eliminates a number of astronomical phenomena that are associated with violent events such as gamma-ray bursts from exploding stars and supernovae, which were otherwise candidates for the burst.”
“The theories are now that the radio wave burst might be linked to a very compact type of object – such as neutron stars or black holes and the bursts could be connected to collisions or ‘star quakes’. Now we know more about what we should be looking for.”