Space radio broadcasts can be scarier than extraterrestrials

The human being, isolated in this little corner of the universe, has spent his entire existence looking up and asking, among other things, if we are alone in this blue globe (sorry, earthmovers). Thousands of years have passed and humanity has developed impressive technologies, including those that allow us to capture radio waves that are emitted from points in the universe billions of light years away from here.

About 10 years ago, we on Earth discovered the Fast Radios Bursts (FRB), which is an energetic phenomenon that manifests itself as a radio pulse from the ends of the universe and lasts for milliseconds. It turns out that for the first time astronomers have discovered such a repetitive emission, which made it possible to trace the source of the signal.

Dark corner of the universe

At this point we do not really know the mechanism. There are many questions: How does a rotating neutron star produce the large amount of energy typical of a FRB?

What scientists have found is quite frightening: Radio waves do not come from aliens with their mother ship eyeing an invasion (at least not at first), but from a region of the universe with unbelievably high energy emissions, possibly surrounding a neutron star, a complete chaos of magnetic emission.

Other possibilities as to where these signals might be coming from are also taken into account, such as a nebula of highly magnetized winds or even the remnants of a supernova around a young neutron star, which is nothing more than one of the possible ways that a star takes over after its "death". It is a very small and very dense celestial body, that is, extremely compact and of enormous gravity.

“At this point, we really don't know the mechanism. There are many questions: How does a rotating neutron star produce the large amount of energy typical of a FRB? ”Said Vishal Gajjar, a postdoctoral fellow at Berkeley University. Whatever it is, in a millisecond pulse, the source of the signal radiates the same amount of energy as our sun emits a whole day. Our luck is that we are at least 3 billion light years away.

If you have been a little more relaxed, Gajjar can throw the bucket of cold water: he says it is not possible to exclude the theory that these signals are actually being sent by aliens. What is really happening is still far from clear, but expect in the near future for more such signals being picked up by our antennas. In the end, we will discover amazing things - either that we are not alone in the universe or a lot of important information about where it came from and how it works.

Space radio broadcasts can be scarier than extraterrestrials via TecMundo