We know very little about FRBs in general,» explains Justin Vandenbroucke, a University of Wisconsin — Madison physicist who, with his colleagues, is turning IceCube, the world's most sensitive neutrino telescope, to the task of helping demystify the powerful
pulses of radio energy generated up to billions of light - years from Earth.
The array will beam 2.1 megawatts
of radio energy into the ionosphere — the region that starts at 100 kilometers above the ground, where solar photons and charged particles crash into Earth's atmosphere.
At least one source of these bright, brief
blasts of radio energy may be a young neutron star assisted by a nearby massive black hole, new research suggests.
A University of Wisconsin — Madison physicist and his colleagues are turning IceCube, the world's most sensitive neutrino telescope, to the task of helping demystify powerful pulses
of radio energy generated up to billions of light - years from Earth.
As the lunar dawn strikes it, it unleashes a massive
burst of radio energy towards Jupiter and goes silent.
As their name suggests, fast radio bursts (or FRBs) are brief yet powerful
spurts of radio energy lasting only a few milliseconds.
The pulses are thought to result from lighthouse - like
beams of radio energy shooting from the neutron star's magnetic poles that sweep across the Earth as the star rotates.
Six more
blasts of radio energy, each lasting just a few milliseconds, erupted from some phenomenon outside of our galaxy, researchers report in the Dec. 20 Astrophysical Journal.
Fast Radio Bursts, also known as FRBs, consist of incredibly brief and intense
bursts of radio energy that seem to originate from remote parts of space.
Such tags, costing just a few cents, carry a small, non-powered chip that, when hit by radio waves from a nearby «reader,» converts
some of the radio energy into its own radio pulse in return.
A small antenna flips up to stand proud of the watch face, and transmits pulses
of radio energy.
And with astronomers now on the lookout for the starnge pulses
of radio energy, Vandenbroucke expects the pace of discovery to accelerate as the world's radio telescopes continue their searches and as new radio interferometers come on line.
These intergalactic pulses
of radio energy have defied explanation, but a new theory suggests a technological origin, whereby aliens use these beams to propel their ships through space.