Posted on 12/28/2016 6:25:39 PM PST by Steely Tom
Who doesn't love a good mystery story? What happens when that story is 5 milliseconds long and comes from a place millions of light-years away?
This episode of _Conversations with an Astrophysicist_ Dr. +Katie Mack and +Scott Lewis dig into the mysterious *Fast Radio Bursts* that have been observed over the past few years. Astronomers are still seeking out the source of what these seemingly random blasts of radio light, but Katie & Scott are on the case to discuss what we know, and hopefully narrow it down a bit.
In the video I link in this story, one of the professors talks about a theory that the FRBs result from a magnetic field phenomenon that may take place on magnetars, sort of an ultra-powerful magnetic star-quake, analog of a phenomenon that's been observed in solar storms on our own Sun.
I don't think the "deep shaft" theory is necessary to get such a powerful pulsing effect. You could also have two super-massive objects orbiting around a common center of mass; one of them functions — by means of its gravitational field — to focus the emissions of the other into a highly focused beam.
The frequency-sweep phenomenon is very interesting because it's fairly hard to produce in nature. To see it at such stupendous power levels and sweep rates is highly thought-provoking, and explains why this phenomenon is getting so much attention.
"Cosmic Jets" -- except this one barely shows up at all at radio frequencies... And, of course, whole galaxies don't whirl around fast enough to present brief, repetitive pulses at a distance...'-)
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Like most everyone else here, I suspect that a magnetar may be a good culprit to blame for this one... '-)
The power of those jets is astonishing. They affect space around them out to a distance of hundreds of light years, if not more.
Those are amazing pictures. The one in x-ray wavelengths is astonishing. I didn’t realize we had the technology to make such an image.
Thanks.
We are alone.
Agree. At that distance, any entity would not travel fast enough to generate a curve. That is assuming that no entity can travel faster that the speed of light.
And that those ETs weren’t beam-forming straight at us.
What inference do you draw from that?
So said the tube worm to the white crab on the geothermal vent...
There are several (natural) ways to get a short pulse (amplitude modulation) from a rapidly spinning source.
Had the frequency sweep modulation been linear, then I might suspect an other-than-natural source. But -- the freq sweep is nonlinear...
Yep. They knew exactly which pile of rocks was going to get the right primordial soup.
https://129.164.179.22/apod/archivepix.html
I sometimes forget to check it for a while -- and, then go an "APOD binge"... '-)
I found the photo in #42 by using its SEARCH function for "Cosmic Jets"...
Had the frequency sweep modulation been linear, then I might suspect an other-than-natural source. But -- the freq sweep is nonlinear...
I just had a really cool thought, worthy (IMHO) of inclusion in a science-fiction story.
What if FRBs are caused by the lighting-off of a relativistic-drive spaceship somewhere far away? Perhaps with it's "exhaust" (or antenna, or plasma beam) aimed directly at us.
Kind of the galactic equivalent of the sound of a hot rod peeling out half a mile away.
FTL burnout...
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