Fast radio bursts are one of the greatest secrets in modern astronomy: who sends these energy signals through the Universe?
Manisha Caleb from the CAASTRO center (ARC Center of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics) confirmed that bursts of radio waves, which scientists have been hunting for 10 years, were actually seen in outer space. She found them together with colleagues from the University of Sydney. These were three fast-wave bursts (BRL) 40 km from Carberra.
For the first time they were caught almost 10 years ago. DFW - long millisecond intense pulses of radio emission coming from a distant distance. They are a billion times brighter than anything we were able to see in the Milky Way galaxy.
There is a thought that they do not come from outer space, but are a form of local intervention, which simply astounded astronomers.
“It’s possible that this is just someone else’s ground-based transmission,” says Professor Matthew Beilis from Swinburne.
“Conventional single-antenna radio telescopes have difficulty in ascertaining exactly where signal transmissions come from,” said Dr. Chris Flynn.
Molongo opens a new window for the Universe
In 2013, researchers from CAASTRO realized that the unique architecture of the Molongo telescope allows you to set the minimum distance to the RTS due to the huge focal length. They began a massive reorganization to open a new window into the Universe.
The Molongo telescope has a large collection area (18,000 m 2) and a large field of view (8 square degrees in the sky), making it an ideal tool for hunting RVD.
Caleb was supposed to create software for the daily processing of 1000 TB of data. And she received her merit by finding 3 BRE.
“It’s fascinating to watch the Molongo telescope make such important scientific breakthroughs,” says Ann Green, a professor at the University of Sydney.
The telescope will be improved thanks to funding from the Australian Research Council. In the future, he will be able to localize the bursts in a separate galaxy.
“Determining the source of the DTV is the key to understanding who sends them,” said Caleb. “We expect Molongo to cope with this task.”
