Latest news with #ASKAP
USA Today
14 hours ago
- Science
- USA Today
NASA satellite emits 'spark' decades after going dormant: Astronomers think they know why
Source of the radio waves was tracked to a location that matches that of NASA's defunct Relay 2 spacecraft, which launched in 1964 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A NASA satellite that had been dead for nearly six decades issued a surprising sign of life. In June 2024, a team of astronomers were perplexed when a radio telescope in Australia scanning the sky over the southern hemisphere came across unusual radio waves. The burst of radiation was very bright, exceedingly quick – and much closer to Earth than the scientists would have thought. After studying the source of the strange cosmic phenomena, the researchers were even more mystified when it appeared to be originating from the same location as a NASA spacecraft that went offline about 58 years ago, according to a press release about the discovery released June 25, 2025. Don't be fooled, though: The defunct spacecraft that operated for about three years in the 1960s isn't kicking back on to resume operations anytime soon. So, what's going on? Here's what to know about the strange signal, and how astronomers tracked it to a defunct NASA satellite. What is NASA Relay 2 spacecraft? Astronomers tracked the source of the radio waves to a location that matches that of NASA's defunct Relay 2 spacecraft, a communications satellite that launched into orbit in 1964 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The spacecraft operated until June 1967 after both of its onboard transponders failed. So, has the long-dead satellite has suddenly sprung back to life after nearly six decades? Astronomers say that's unlikely. Rather, the waves more likely came from a "spark" of built up electricity, which emitted a pulse as it jumped from one part of the spacecraft to another while passing through charged environment above Earth's atmosphere, according to the researchers. Strange signal originated in Milky Way The team of astronomers discovered the strange signal while hunting for bright, powerful flashes of electromagnetic radiation in the distant universe known as fast radio bursts. Most surprising to the researchers, all of whom are from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, was that the signal spotted June 13, 2024, didn't originate from a far-flung galaxy. Instead, it originated in our own cosmic neighborhood in the Milky Way. While incredibly bright, the event only lasted less than 30 nanoseconds. The astronomers detected it using Australia's national science agency's (CSIRO) ASKAP radio telescope. Clancy James, an astrophysicist at Curtin University in Australia's Perth campus, then led a team that studied the extremely bright source of radio waves to determine its source. While the satellite signal is one possible explanation, the researchers have also theorized that an impact with a tiny particle of space debris, known as a "micrometeoroid," could have caused the anomaly. Such impacts can create short-lived clouds of hot, charged gas that produce bursts of radio waves. Electrostatic discharges could post threats in Earth's orbit The discovery marks the first time that a spark of built-up electricity has been observed to be both so bright and so short in duration. Now that the detection has been made, the finding not only demonstrates how astronomers can help identify the origin of these kinds of signals in the future, but could even help humanity better understand how electrostatic discharges can pose a danger to satellites in Earth's orbit. "Detections like this show how the tools developed to study the distant Universe can help scientists understand the increasingly crowded and critically important space environment close to Earth," the researcher said in a statement. The research has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letters. A pre-print version of the paper is available on arXiv. Eric Lagatta is the Space Connect reporter for the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at elagatta@
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Astronomers solve mystery of strange bright burst in space
Around midday on June 13 last year, my colleagues and I were scanning the skies when we thought we had discovered a strange and exciting new object in space. Using a huge radio telescope, we spotted a blindingly fast flash of radio waves that appeared to be coming from somewhere inside our galaxy. After a year of research and analysis, we have finally pinned down the source of the signal – and it was even closer to home than we had ever expected. Our instrument was located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara – also known as the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory – in remote Western Australia, where the sky above the red desert plains is vast and sublime. We were using a new detector at the radio telescope known as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – or ASKAP – to search for rare flickering signals from distant galaxies called fast radio bursts. We detected a burst. Surprisingly, it showed no evidence of a time delay between high and low frequencies – a phenomenon known as 'dispersion'. This meant it must have originated within a few hundred light years of Earth. In other words, it must have come from inside our galaxy – unlike other fast radio bursts which have come from billions of light years away. Fast radio bursts are the brightest radio flashes in the Universe, emitting 30 years' worth of the Sun's energy in less than a millisecond – and we only have hints of how they are produced. Some theories suggest they are produced by 'magnetars' – the highly magnetised cores of massive, dead stars – or arise from cosmic collisions between these dead stellar remnants. Regardless of how they occur, fast radio bursts are also a precise instrument for mapping out the so-called 'missing matter' in our Universe. When we went back over our recordings to take a closer look at the radio burst, we had a surprise: the signal seemed to have disappeared. Two months of trial and error went by until the problem was found. ASKAP is composed of 36 antennas, which can be combined to act like one gigantic zoom lens six kilometres across. Just like a zoom lens on a camera, if you try to take a picture of something too close, it comes out blurry. Only by removing some of the antennas from the analysis – artificially reducing the size of our 'lens' – did we finally make an image of the burst. We weren't excited by this – in fact, we were disappointed. No astronomical signal could be close enough to cause this blurring. This meant it was probably just radio-frequency 'interference' – an astronomer's term for human-made signals that corrupt our data. It's the kind of junk data we'd normally throw away. Yet the burst had us intrigued. For one thing, this burst was fast. The fastest known fast radio burst lasted about 10 millionths of a second. This burst consisted of an extremely bright pulse lasting a few billionths of a second, and two dimmer after-pulses, for a total duration of 30 nanoseconds. So, where did this amazingly short, bright burst come from? We already knew the direction it came from, and we were able to use the blurriness in the image to estimate a distance of 4,500 km. And there was only one thing in that direction, at that distance, at that time – a derelict 60-year-old satellite called Relay 2. Relay 2 was one of the first ever telecommunications satellites. Launched by the United States in 1964, it was operated until 1965, and its onboard systems had failed by 1967. But how could Relay 2 have produced this burst? Some satellites, presumed dead, have been observed to reawaken. They are known as 'zombie satellites'. But this was no zombie. No system on board Relay 2 had ever been able to produce a nanosecond burst of radio waves, even when it was alive. We think the most likely cause was an 'electrostatic discharge'. As satellites are exposed to electrically charged gases in space known as plasmas, they can become charged – just like when your feet rub on carpet. And that accumulated charge can suddenly discharge, with the resulting spark causing a flash of radio waves. Electrostatic discharges are common and are known to cause damage to spacecraft. Yet all known electrostatic discharges last thousands of times longer than our signal, and occur most commonly when the Earth's magnetosphere is highly active. And our magnetosphere was unusually quiet at the time of the signal. Another possibility is a strike by a micrometeoroid – a tiny piece of space debris – similar to that experienced by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. According to our calculations, a 22 micro-gram micrometeoroid travelling at 20km per second or more and hitting Relay 2 would have been able to produce such a strong flash of radio waves. But we estimate the chance that the nanosecond burst we detected was caused by such an event to be about 1 per cent. Ultimately, we can't be certain why we saw this signal from Relay 2. What we do know, however, is how to see more of them. When looking at 13.8 millisecond timescales – the equivalent of keeping the camera shutter open for longer – this signal was washed out, and barely detectable even to a powerful radio telescope such as ASKAP. But if we had searched at 13.8 nanoseconds, any old radio antenna would have easily seen it. It shows us that monitoring satellites for electrostatic discharges with ground-based radio antennas is possible. And with the number of satellites in orbit growing rapidly, finding new ways to monitor them is more important than ever. But did our team eventually find new astronomical signals? You bet we did. And there are no doubt plenty more to be found. Clancy William James is a Senior Lecturer (astronomy and astroparticle physics) at Curtin University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
The Independent
2 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Astronomers solve mystery of strange bright burst in space
Around midday on June 13 last year, my colleagues and I were scanning the skies when we thought we had discovered a strange and exciting new object in space. Using a huge radio telescope, we spotted a blindingly fast flash of radio waves that appeared to be coming from somewhere inside our galaxy. After a year of research and analysis, we have finally pinned down the source of the signal – and it was even closer to home than we had ever expected. A surprise in the desert Our instrument was located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara – also known as the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory – in remote Western Australia, where the sky above the red desert plains is vast and sublime. We were using a new detector at the radio telescope known as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – or ASKAP – to search for rare flickering signals from distant galaxies called fast radio bursts. We detected a burst. Surprisingly, it showed no evidence of a time delay between high and low frequencies – a phenomenon known as 'dispersion'. This meant it must have originated within a few hundred light years of Earth. In other words, it must have come from inside our galaxy – unlike other fast radio bursts which have come from billions of light years away. A problem emerges Fast radio bursts are the brightest radio flashes in the Universe, emitting 30 years' worth of the Sun's energy in less than a millisecond – and we only have hints of how they are produced. Some theories suggest they are produced by 'magnetars' – the highly magnetised cores of massive, dead stars – or arise from cosmic collisions between these dead stellar remnants. Regardless of how they occur, fast radio bursts are also a precise instrument for mapping out the so-called 'missing matter' in our Universe. When we went back over our recordings to take a closer look at the radio burst, we had a surprise: the signal seemed to have disappeared. Two months of trial and error went by until the problem was found. ASKAP is composed of 36 antennas, which can be combined to act like one gigantic zoom lens six kilometres across. Just like a zoom lens on a camera, if you try to take a picture of something too close, it comes out blurry. Only by removing some of the antennas from the analysis – artificially reducing the size of our 'lens' – did we finally make an image of the burst. We weren't excited by this – in fact, we were disappointed. No astronomical signal could be close enough to cause this blurring. This meant it was probably just radio-frequency 'interference' – an astronomer's term for human-made signals that corrupt our data. It's the kind of junk data we'd normally throw away. Yet the burst had us intrigued. For one thing, this burst was fast. The fastest known fast radio burst lasted about 10 millionths of a second. This burst consisted of an extremely bright pulse lasting a few billionths of a second, and two dimmer after-pulses, for a total duration of 30 nanoseconds. So, where did this amazingly short, bright burst come from? A zombie in space? We already knew the direction it came from, and we were able to use the blurriness in the image to estimate a distance of 4,500 km. And there was only one thing in that direction, at that distance, at that time – a derelict 60-year-old satellite called Relay 2. Relay 2 was one of the first ever telecommunications satellites. Launched by the United States in 1964, it was operated until 1965, and its onboard systems had failed by 1967. But how could Relay 2 have produced this burst? Some satellites, presumed dead, have been observed to reawaken. They are known as 'zombie satellites'. But this was no zombie. No system on board Relay 2 had ever been able to produce a nanosecond burst of radio waves, even when it was alive. We think the most likely cause was an 'electrostatic discharge'. As satellites are exposed to electrically charged gases in space known as plasmas, they can become charged – just like when your feet rub on carpet. And that accumulated charge can suddenly discharge, with the resulting spark causing a flash of radio waves. Electrostatic discharges are common and are known to cause damage to spacecraft. Yet all known electrostatic discharges last thousands of times longer than our signal, and occur most commonly when the Earth's magnetosphere is highly active. And our magnetosphere was unusually quiet at the time of the signal. Another possibility is a strike by a micrometeoroid – a tiny piece of space debris – similar to that experienced by the James Webb Space Telescope in June 2022. According to our calculations, a 22 micro-gram micrometeoroid travelling at 20km per second or more and hitting Relay 2 would have been able to produce such a strong flash of radio waves. But we estimate the chance that the nanosecond burst we detected was caused by such an event to be about 1 per cent. Plenty more sparks in the sky Ultimately, we can't be certain why we saw this signal from Relay 2. What we do know, however, is how to see more of them. When looking at 13.8 millisecond timescales – the equivalent of keeping the camera shutter open for longer – this signal was washed out, and barely detectable even to a powerful radio telescope such as ASKAP. But if we had searched at 13.8 nanoseconds, any old radio antenna would have easily seen it. It shows us that monitoring satellites for electrostatic discharges with ground-based radio antennas is possible. And with the number of satellites in orbit growing rapidly, finding new ways to monitor them is more important than ever. But did our team eventually find new astronomical signals? You bet we did. And there are no doubt plenty more to be found.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Science
- Time of India
Who sent mysterious radio burst in 2024? Study reveals the presence of a ‘zombie' NASA Satellite. Here's truth
In June 2024, astronomers detected a powerful burst of radio waves from within the Milky Way. After investigation, scientists now believe the signal came from a deactivated or zombie NASA satellite launched in the 1960s. This discovery could help researchers better understand unusual signals in space and the behavior of old satellites. Signal Detected from Within Our Galaxy A burst of radio waves was picked up by astronomers in June 2024. It was detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia. ASKAP has 36 identical dish antennas. This array searches for short but strong radio signals in space. Play Video Pause Skip Backward Skip Forward Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 0:00 Loaded : 0.00% 0:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 1x Playback Rate Chapters Chapters Descriptions descriptions off , selected Captions captions settings , opens captions settings dialog captions off , selected Audio Track default , selected Picture-in-Picture Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Text Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Caption Area Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Opacity Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Drop shadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Usually, radio bursts come from distant galaxies. These signals often release energy equal to what the sun produces in three days. But this signal came from much closer. It started inside the Milky Way galaxy, very near to Earth. ASKAP could not focus on it clearly, similar to a phone camera failing to focus on a nearby object. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 9 years ago - Most beautiful twins. Their appearance today will shock you Novelodge Undo Also Read: Roofman: Is Channing Tatum starrer crime drama based on a true story? Here's trailer, release date, plot and cast NASA Satellite Named as Likely Source A team of scientists investigated the source. They ruled out new space objects. The only possible match was an old NASA satellite called Relay 2. This satellite was launched in 1964. It stopped working in 1967 after its two transmitters failed, a New Scientist report said citing a new preprint study. Live Events Despite being inactive for many years, Relay 2 may have created the radio pulse detected in 2024. The researchers shared their findings in a study on arXiv on June 13. The study is not yet peer-reviewed. Unusual Nature of the Signal The signal lasted only 30 nanoseconds. It was very strong but very brief. The pattern of the pulse did not match any known function of Relay 2. This ruled out the chance that it was a planned transmission. Researchers looked into other possible causes. They believe it may have happened because of a micrometeorite impact or an electrostatic discharge. Both events can create powerful radio signals in space. Also Read: Marge Simpson Death Rumours: Does Marge Simpson die in The Simpsons Season 36 finale? Here's the truth Possible Reason Micrometeorites are tiny space rocks. When they hit a spacecraft, they can cause changes in the spacecraft's surface. These changes may increase electrical activity and release radio waves. Scientists have noted that micrometeorite impacts can directly create such signals. According to the researchers, if a micrometeorite hit Relay 2, it might have created plasma. This would allow electric charges to build up and discharge quickly. That could explain the strong radio pulse. Electrostatic Discharge More Likely Scientists say that electrostatic discharge (ESD) is a more likely cause. ESD happens when electric charges between two surfaces suddenly flow. Spacecraft surfaces can carry different charges due to space conditions. Relay 2 was built many years ago. Its materials might hold electric charges more easily than modern satellites. When the charge becomes too strong, it can discharge and produce radio waves. According to the study, ESD has long been known to create radio pulses. The research team believes Relay 2's old design may have made it more likely to generate a strong pulse in space. FAQs What is electrostatic discharge and how can it affect satellites? Electrostatic discharge is the sudden flow of electricity between charged surfaces. In satellites, it can create short radio bursts or damage electronic parts. Why is this radio signal from Relay 2 important to scientists? The signal helps scientists understand how old satellites might still produce activity. It may also offer a way to detect discharges from space debris or inactive satellites.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Zombie NASA satellite emits powerful radio pulse after 60 years of silence
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Last year, scientists detected a mysterious, powerful burst of radio waves originating from within our galaxy. Now, astronomers think it was caused by a long-dead NASA satellite — but they're not sure how it happened. Relay 2 blasted off in 1964, but the communication satellite went offline in 1967 after its two onboard transponders failed. Almost 60 years later, in June 2024, the satellite produced an unexpected signal, the researchers said in a new preprint study, which was posted June 13 to the server arXiv and has not yet been peer reviewed. "This was an incredibly powerful radio pulse that vastly outshone everything else in the sky for a very short amount of time," study lead author Clancy James, an associate professor at Curtin University's Institute of Radio Astronomy in Australia, told New Scientist. The pulse lasted just 30 nanoseconds, which doesn't match any of the dead satellite's systems — ruling out the possibility of a deliberate transmission, according to the preprint. Instead, James and his colleagues think that either a micrometeorite impact or a buildup of electricity triggered the burst of radio waves. The researchers detected the strange pulse while scanning the sky for radio bursts with the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) — a radio telescope in Western Australia comprising 36 identical dish antennae. Radio bursts are intense blasts of radio waves that can unleash as much energy within a fraction of a second as the sun emits in three days. They usually come from distant galaxies, and in particular from rare, massive galaxies, according to a 2024 Nature article. But the signal James and his colleagues intercepted in June 2024 did not come from a far-flung galaxy; it originated in the Milky Way. The pulse started so close to Earth that ASKAP couldn't focus on it, in the same way that a phone camera sometimes struggles to focus on nearby objects. Related: Can we refuel 'dead' satellites in space? Bold new missions aim to try. "We got all excited, thinking maybe we'd discovered a new pulsar or some other object," James told New Scientist. However, when the researchers traced the origin of the radio pulse, they determined that Relay 2 was the only plausible source. Having ruled out the possibility that the pulse came from systems onboard the satellite, the team suggested two alternative events that could have created such a burst. First, the satellite may have been hit by a micrometeorite, the researchers said in the preprint. Impacts may generate clouds of plasma that can increase the conductivity of the space environment or create an electric field on the surface of a spacecraft. "Micrometeoroid impacts can also produce direct radio-frequency emission," the team wrote. But a more likely scenario is that the radio burst originated from an electrostatic discharge event on Relay 2, the researchers said. Electrostatic discharge (ESD) occurs when there is a sudden flow of electricity between two nearby surfaces or materials on a spacecraft that have different electric charges. RELATED STORIES —Satellite coated in ultra-dark 'Vantablack' paint will launch into space next year to help combat major issue —China uses 'gravitational slingshots' to save 2 satellites that were stuck in the wrong orbit for 123 days —'Yet another miracle save': NASA engineers complete nail-biting maneuver to resurrect Voyager 1's long-dead thrusters "As a very early spacecraft, Relay 2 may have been constructed from materials [...] capable of holding greater charge and hence producing stronger ESD events," the researchers wrote. "It has long been known that ESD causes radio frequency pulses," they added. Either scenario is possible, but it would be very difficult to establish which one applied in this case, Karen Aplin, a professor of space science and technology at the University of Bristol in the U.K. who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist. That's because the signals produced by both would look so similar, she said. But the research is a good launchpad for future investigations of electrostatic discharge from satellites, Aplin said. "In a world where there is a lot of space debris and there are more small, low-cost satellites with limited protection from electrostatic discharges, this radio detection may ultimately offer a new technique to evaluate electrostatic discharges in space," she said.
