The strange radio signals mentioned above are fast radio bursts (FRBs). These are 1/1,000 second long pulses of radio waves so powerful that they can travel billions of light years and be received by the earth.
FRBs were first discovered in 2007 and theoretical physicists such as Professor Avi Loeb, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (USA), have suggested that they could emanate from ancient cultures. alien intelligence.
An artist’s rendering of an explosion on a supermagnetic neutron star, also known as a magnetar, is shown in documents provided by NASA February 10, 2016.
Currently, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, USA) have accurately determined the origin of an FRB and discovered that it is very close to a neutron star. This is an extremely dense collapsed star, only the size of a city but with the mass of the sun.
The neutron star is about 200 million light years away and is surrounded by a dense magnetic field that scientists believe is the source of the FRB.
Dr. Kiyoshi Masui, associate professor of physics at MIT, said: “Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars, atoms cannot survive but will be torn apart by magnetic field”.
Previously, Professor Loeb has suggested that the above energy bursts could be “powerful radio beams” created by an alien civilization and used for military purposes. He suggested that they could be created to propel a light sail to launch cargo at speeds close to the speed of light.
However, many scientists believe they are more natural in origin, and to find out, scientists studied a specific FRB discovered in 2022. They determined the exact location of the radio signal. this gland by analyzing its “flickering”, similar to the way stars twinkle in the sky at night.
The smaller or farther away an object is, the more it flickers. Likewise, radio waves flicker or glow as they pass through the interstellar medium, helping scientists understand their origin.
