“We’ve never seen anything like it.” First Contact “The brightness of the object also varies dramatically, by a factor of 100, and the signal switches on and off, apparently at random,” Wang added. “This means its light oscillates in only one direction, but that direction rotates with time. ![]() “The strangest property of this new signal is that it has a very high polarization,” lead study author Ziteng Wang of the University of Sydney said in a press release. After using a broad array of techniques to detect and interpret them, scientists on the project still don’t know what their source is. In a study released today, The Astrophysical Journal says that the signals first appeared in January 2020. The radio signals, which appear to issue from the centre of our galaxy, arrive sporadically and travel in a pattern that defies current understanding. The researchers gratefully acknowledge the Wajarri Yamatji as traditional owners of the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site, on which ASKAP is located.Strange signals coming from an unidentified outer space object are baffling scientists internationally. The MeerKAT telescope is operated by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory, which is a facility of the National Research Foundation, an agency of the Department of Science and Innovation. Operation of ASKAP is funded by the Australian Government with support from the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy. The ASKAP radio telescope is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO. Researchers received funding and support from the following bodies: Australian Research Council, US National Science Foundation, European Research Council, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and the Sydney Informatics Hub at the University of Sydney. “We expect the power of this telescope will help us solve mysteries such as this latest discovery, but it will also open vast new swathes of the cosmos to exploration in the radio spectrum.” Declaration It will be able to make sensitive maps of the sky every day,” Professor Murphy said. “Within the next decade, the transcontinental Square Kilometre Array (SKA) radio telescope will come online. The scientists plan to keep a close eye on the object to look for more clues as to what it might be. And we don’t really understand those sources, anyway, so this adds to the mystery.” “While our new object, ASKAP J173608.2-321635, does share some properties with GCRTs there are also differences. Professor David Kaplan from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. ![]() They turned to the Parkes radio telescope and again failed to detect the source. This behaviour was extraordinary.”Īfter detecting six radio signals from the source over nine months in 2020, the astronomers tried to find the object in visual light. ![]() This object was unique in that it started out invisible, became bright, faded away and then reappeared. “Looking towards the centre of the Galaxy, we found ASKAP J173608.2-321635, named after its coordinates. Professor Murphy said: “We have been surveying the sky with ASKAP to find unusual new objects with a project known as Variables and Slow Transients ( VAST), throughout 20. Mr Wang’s PhD supervisor is Professor Tara Murphy also from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy and the School of Physics. ![]() Follow-up observations were with the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT telescope. Mr Wang and an international team, including scientists from Australia’s national science agency CSIRO, Germany, the United States, Canada, South Africa, Spain and France discovered the object using the CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia.
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