Mystery over Sounds from Deep Space

[Neferti]

http://www.news.com.au/technology/scien ... 6985928220

A TELESCOPE in Puerto Rico has confirmed what Australian astronomers have known for a while: There are mysterious sounds emanating from deep in outer space.

The Arecibo Observatory has picked up split-second bursts of radio waves from beyond the Milky Way, which have excited astronomers from around the world, science website Phys.org reports.

Parkes’ radio telescope in central NSW was the first to discover these curious pulses, but some scientists wrote these off because it was the only facility to report the findings.

But now the Puerto Rico telescope’s international team of astronomers has detected similar intergalactic radio wave bursts.

“Our result is important because it eliminates any doubt that these radio bursts are truly of cosmic origin,” principal investigator for the pulsar survey Victoria Kaspi said.

“The radio waves show every sign of having come from outside our galaxy — a really exciting prospect.”

So what is the source of the unidentified sounds?

This question presents a perplexing mystery for astrophysicists and there is no consensus.

Possible answers include evaporating black holes, the merging of neutron stars or flares from magnetars (neutron stars with powerful magnetic fields).

The cosmic bursts, which last only a few thousandths of a second, are estimated to occur about 10,000 times a day.

“The brightness and duration of this event, and the inferred rate at which these bursts occur, are all consistent with the properties of the bursts previously detected by the Parkes telescope in Australia,” said Laura Spitler, the lead author of a paper on the subject published yesterday in The Astrophysical Journal .

The Arecibo Observatory has the world’s largest and most sensitive radio telescope, with a dish that spans 305m.

[Super Nova]

Great photos and breaking article Nef.

It sounds like it is a natural source.

Disappointing I was hoping it was an artificial signal.

We know so little about our universe. No surprise since we only really started 4 hundred years ago with the invention of the telescope.

[Neferti]

There were some "moving lights" in the sky too ... seen in Melbourne and Sydney. Will try to find the article.

[Neferti]

Here it is.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 1eb596546e

A BRIGHT object that streaked across Australian skies last night was most likely part of a Russian weather satellite.

Social media lit up from about 9.45pm with reports of a bright object with a long tail burning across the sky in Victoria, NSW, Tasmania and South Australia.

There was even a report of a sighting in southwest Queensland.

Sydney observatory astronomer Melissa Hulbert says what was believed to be a meteor was more likely part of a Russian satellite launched from Kazakhstan.

“It looks like it was the upper-stage of a Soyuz’s rocket that was launched a few days ago,” Ms Hulbert said.

[Super Nova]

Great to see in real life.

I was sitting on a beach in Fiji... god forever again when Sky Lab came down. By chance was looking at the right place in the sky. What a stroke of luck it was.