Latest news with #fastRadioBurst
Gizmodo
24-06-2025
- Science
- Gizmodo
NASA Satellite That's Been Dead for 57 Years Sends Mysterious Signal to Earth
A little over a year ago, scientists in Australia picked up a brief burst of electromagnetic radiation. The pulse was so strong that it eclipsed all other signals coming from the sky, but its origins were unknown. After digging through the data, the team discovered that the source wasn't a distant celestial object but rather a zombie satellite left to orbit Earth with no purpose. NASA's Relay-2 launched on January 21, 1964, two years after its predecessor, Relay-1, was sent to orbit. The pair were experimental communications satellites that carried onboard experiments to map the trapped radiation belt, otherwise known as the Van Allen radiation belts. Relay-2 continued to operate until June 9, 1967, when its two transponders failed, and it wasn't heard from again until it let out a short-lived signal nearly 60 years later. On June 13, 2024, astronomers at the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder picked up a mysterious fast radio burst (FRB) that lasted for less than 30 nanoseconds. 'We got all excited, thinking maybe we'd discovered a new pulsar or some other object,' Clancy James, a researcher at Curtin University, told New Scientist. 'This was an incredibly powerful radio pulse that vastly outshone everything else in the sky for a very short amount of time.' The scientists originally assumed that the signal came from a distant object in the cosmos, but further analysis revealed that the long-dead Relay-2 was in fact the culprit behind the mysterious pulse, according to a paper available on the preprint website arXiv. Fast radio bursts are brief, powerful pulses of radio waves that usually come from deep space and last for only a few milliseconds. Despite being short-lived, FRBs can release as much energy in that brief window of time to outshine an entire galaxy, according to NASA. The FRB detected in June 2024 was particularly strong—and it coincided with the NASA satellite flying directly overhead at the time, according to the paper. It was also unusually clear and well-defined. As to why Relay-2 suddenly emitted this signal, that's a mystery. The scientists behind the detection believe that the satellite may have built up electricity over the years and then suddenly discharged it in a single powerful burst. Another possibility is that Relay-2 was struck by a micrometeorite or another object in orbit, resulting in the release of a small cloud of plasma, the researchers speculate. As an increasing number of defunct satellites zip around in space, producing all kinds of weird bleeps and bloops, it'll become harder for scientists to distinguish whether it's the cosmos talking—or just some piece of malfunctioning hardware.
The Sun
24-06-2025
- Science
- The Sun
Alien-hunting scientists reveal origin of mystery space pulse after year-long probe into surprising ‘distant object'
THE origin of a mysterious pulse emanating from space has finally been revealed by scientists after a year of investigation. And it's not quite an alien civilisation trying to contact Earth, according to a new study. 2 The fast radio burst (FRB), detected at the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder in June 2024, only lasted less than 30 nanoseconds. But it was so strong that it surpassed all other signals coming from the sky. Scientists track these bizarre space signals to understand where they came from - and explanations include everything from black holes to alien technology. Most FRBs come from deep within space - and so it was assumed this recent powerful signal was too. However, researchers found that the pulse had been emitted from something much closer to home: a zombie satellite. The Relay 2, a long-dead NASA satellite, had let out a powerful signal each time it passed over the astronomers' signal detection tools. The defunct satellite's proximity to Earth, researchers said, made its signal so unusually clear. Launched by Nasa in 1964, the communications satellite has been stuck in Earth's orbit for decades. It stopped working less than a year after launch. Now - the Relay 2 hasn't been emitting signals all this time. First mission to 'create artificial solar eclipse' using satellites will solve Sun mystery It has been silent since its transponders broke in 1967, until now. The research team, which published their findings in research paper archive arXiv, said it is unlikely the satellite has suddenly come back to life. Instead, astronomers suggested that a build up of static electricity on the spacecraft reached a boiling point and then discharged - firing a pulse of energy over Earth. Similar discharges have been seen before, the study noted. Another possibility is that the satellite was hit by a micrometeroid - a small fleck of space rock. While a micrometeoroid typically measures between a few micrometres to a few millimetres, the speed at which they are hurtling in Earth's orbit means they can exert a fair amount of damage. If the satellite was struck by such an object, the collision would have released a very small cloud of plasma, according to researchers. This plasma can magnify an FRB signal, making it seem stronger. 2
