Astronomers from Australia have discovered a mysterious repeated radio signal near the center of the Milky Way. & Nbsp; reports this Live Science portal with & nbsp; link to & nbsp; article hosted on the preprint server & nbsp; arXiv.
What do we know about & nbsp; this radio signal?
The radio source was named ASKAP J173608.2-321635. During the period of April 2019 to the year of August 2020, the mysterious signal appeared 13 times, while it never lasted more than several weeks. The detected radio source has appeared and & nbsp; disappeared for no reason. Earlier radio telescopes did not record it. Scientists described the signal as a “ highly polarized variable radio source located close to the galactic center and having no clear analogue at multiple wavelengths. & nbsp; day disappears completely. This behavior is unique for all known celestial bodies on & nbsp; today. Therefore, the researchers think they may be dealing with a & nbsp; “ new class of objects detected by & nbsp; radio imaging. & # 39; & # 39;
“ The most surprising property of this source is & nbsp; is that she is strongly polarized. Our eye cannot distinguish between circularly polarized light and unpolarized light, but ASKAP has the equivalent of polarized sunglasses to filter it. Such sources are really rare, usually we do not find more than 10 & nbsp; from & nbsp; thousands of sources for & nbsp; an observation & raquo ;, & nbsp; & mdash; says New Atlas lead author of the study Ziteng Wang . He added that the radio signal source found turns on and off unexpectedly. “ The brightness of this source can change dramatically, decreasing over time. one day. But & nbsp; sometimes this & nbsp; can last for several weeks, & nbsp; & mdash; explains the researcher.
In & nbsp; February 2021, a mysterious radio signal also recorded the MeerKAT radio telescope in & nbsp; South Africa, and & nbsp; in & nbsp; April & nbsp; & mdash; Australian ATCA Telescope. Previously it was & nbsp; detected neither in the & nbsp; X-rays, nor in the & nbsp; observations in the & nbsp; near infrared.
According to the scientists' opinion, they could detect the so-called radio transient in the direction of the center of the Galaxy (GCRT). “ Since the source is close to the & nbsp; Galactic Center, this source could be a new GCRT. However, the chronology of the bursts of & nbsp; our source is not consistent with the chronology of the & nbsp; GCRT. In addition, the signal that they are detected at & nbsp; lower frequencies & raquo ;, & nbsp; & mdash; Wang noted. At the same time, the researchers note that not much is known about them. GCRT themselves.
How did you manage to detect the radio signal?
ASKAP J173608.2-32163 has been identified with the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. It is one of the most sensitive radio telescopes in the world. This is at Murchison Observatory in Western Australia. The telescope scans the sky in & nbsp; looking for incoming and outgoing radio sources that can be associated with & nbsp; pulsars, magnetars, supernovae, stellar eruptions and & nbsp; others.
The signal was first received in & nbsp; April 2019 in & nbsp; variable studies and & nbsp; slow transients (VAST).
Source:
https://www.livescience.com/strange-radio-source- milky-way-center
https://newatlas.com/space/strange-radio-signal-galactic-center-askap/