Posted on 12/16/2023 7:05:09 PM PST by Libloather
A team of astronomers says they have detected a never-before-heard radio signal that offers insights into the mystery of uncharted deep space.
This signal is known as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), a bright flash of radio light lasting for a few milliseconds and originating from beyond the Milky Way.
Some FRBs repeat themselves, and a new study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society has shed new light. The study has detected a highly active repeating FRB signal behaving differently than anything previously detected.
"This work is exciting because it provides both confirmation of known FRB properties and the discovery of some new ones," said lead author Sofia Sheikh, of the SETI Institute in California.
Over a two-month period, Sheikh and other scientists observed 35 FRBs from a single source, FRB 20220912A. They discovered a fascinating pattern emerging from their observations.
Most repeating FRBs gradually get lower in pitch as they go on, according to astronomers. However, FRB 20220912A is different. It has a never-before-seen change in pitch that sounds like a cosmic slide-whistle which can be heard when the data is converted into a sound clip using a xylophone.
The high-pitched notes are at the beginning of the clip, while the low-pitched notes are at the end, like someone playing a xylophone and repeatedly hitting the lowest note, scientists at the SETI Institute report.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxweather.com ...
Why is everyone so excited about finding another navigation aid?
You would have to know the original frequency to determine red shift. How would they know what that frequency was?
When astronomers look in their telescopes at far away galaxies and nebula, they analyze the spectrum of the light from the objects and there is a shift from what is expected from say the light from the sun. The shift also effects radio waves, gravitational waves etc.
This was discovered about a hundred years ago by a guy named Hubble and is called the Hubble effect.
By analyzing the shift in the spectrum, the red shift they can determine how far an object is away by knowing the speed of light and how long the signal takes to get here.
You still need to know the original frequency of the signal.
As the article says This signal is known as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), a bright flash of radio LIGHT.
They are looking at the light, analyzing the spectrum and determining how far it is away from the red shift..
Basically, they are piggy backing the frequency of the signal on the light spectrum that’s why they don’t need the original frequency of the signal to determine how far away the object is.
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