Mysterious radio burst came from dead 1960s satellite
(NewsNation) — A dead NASA satellite is the source of a brief but extremely powerful radio signal initially thought to have come from deep space.
Relay 2 was one of a pair of experimental communications satellites launched in 1962 and 1964. Relay 2 operated for just a year and a half, and transponders onboard stopped responding to radio signals in 1967 when the satellite went silent.
The signal was detected last June, lasting less than 30 nanoseconds. Radio signals from space aren't uncommon, with pulsars, black holes, massive galaxies, stars and other cosmic phenomena putting out signals that get picked up by satellites.
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The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder radio telescope traced this specific signal back to its origin and found it was much closer to home.
But Relay 2, still in Earth's orbit, didn't come back to life to send the signal, researchers say.
Instead, it's likely that electrostatic discharge or plasma discharge after a micrometeoroid impact could have caused the radio burst.
Relay 2 is one of many space objects that remain in Earth's orbit despite being nonfunctional. Some satellites are deorbited after about 25 years to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.
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But that's only allowed when operators can show that there is less than a 1 in 10,000 chance of injury or property damage after deorbiting. If that's not possible, a controlled deorbit may direct the satellite into a remote ocean area.
But satellites that don't have enough fuel for reentry are left to orbit indefinitely, instruments and subsystems shut down.
That leaves the possibility of other signals from zombie satellites, making it harder to determine what signals are coming from the cosmos and which are coming from human-made objects lingering in orbit.
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