“After we opened the first flash of a new type, FRB180725A, we managed to fix several more such signals deviating from the” norm “by almost 400 MHz, none of them coincide with the position of known terrestrial radio emitters operating at the same frequencies,” – writes Patrick Boyle (Patrick Boyle), head of the observatory CHIME.
For the first time about the existence of mysterious bursts of radio emission, FRB, astronomers began talking in 2007, when they were accidentally discovered during observations of radio pulsars with the help of the Parks (Australia) telescope.
In subsequent years, scientists managed to find traces of another three dozen such bursts. Their comparison showed that they may be of artificial origin and even potentially could be signals of extraterrestrial civilizations due to unexplained periodicity in their structure.
In the spring of the year before last, scientists found out that the source of one such outbreak, FRB 150418, was an elliptical galaxy located six billion light-years from the Milky Way. Hence, the researchers concluded that such bursts are produced during the fusion of neutron stars or other compact objects that turn into a black hole. Later astrophysicists discovered that FRB-flares can be repeated, thereby putting these theories in doubt.
All these issues and disputes, as Boyle notes, may soon be resolved by the Canadian radio telescope CHIME, built specifically for observing FRB and other “fast” radio signals entering the Milky Way from the intergalactic medium.
Unlike other telescopes, such as the Russian “RATAN-600”, CHIME can monitor almost the entire sky simultaneously, which dramatically increases the chances of opening new FRB-flares. While he works in the test mode, but after reaching full power, as shown by the calculations of Boyle and his colleagues, will find several dozen “signals of aliens” per day.
In the evening of July 25, CHIME recorded a new FRB-flash in the constellation Cepheus, whose source was several billion light years from Earth. The first study of its spectrum indicated a great surprise: the peak of its power fell not by 800 or 1400 megahertz, as with the rest of the “alien signals,” but at frequencies in the interval between 400 and 800 megahertz.
Recalling various incidents related to other interesting radio signals, the scientists compared the position of this flash, its length is two milliseconds, and also other properties with where the man-made sources of similar radio waves are located on Earth or in the orbit of the planet. As shown by comparison, the flash FRB180725A really originated in space and could not be a product of unknown processes on Earth or in its atmosphere.
As it arose, it is not yet clear. On the other hand, the differences in the structure of the FRB180725A and other radio bursts suggest that they can be generated not only by magnetars, as observations of the repeating flash FRB 121102 show, but also other cosmic cataclysms.
Later, CHIME discovered several other similar outbreaks, which the researchers reported to colleagues. They asked the scientific community to follow the points where the FRB180725A and its “cousins” were found, using other telescopes and wave bands.
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