If you are not aware of the “Wow Signal” event happening in 1975, it was an ambiguous high-frequency signal sent from the Sagittarius constellation. It was never explained; however, it stayed as one of the credible pieces of evidence of extraterrestrial life. Yet, the evidence was still consensually deemed good enough evidence to support the existence of extraterrestrial life. Furthermore, the signal was never received again.
Now, some reports are trending on the internet, which suggests that another “bizarre” signal of unexplained origin has been received by the astronomers, perplexing them completely. Some experts in astronomy are now debating over the source of an obscure signal received by the astronomers recently.
The mysterious signals’ source has been pinpointed somewhere at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Some experts theorize that an unknown or undetected object of stellar origin might be the reason behind this unexplained detection of radio signals.
To understand this, you should know that there are several objects present in our Milky Way galaxy that do have the property of altering their magnetic fields and, in turn, producing radio waves. If you want to dig in further, then you should reach NASA’s website.
Throughout the life period of a star, it gives out light ranging from various levels in the electromagnetic spectrum. And, some of the light comes from a spectrum such as a radio wave, which remains invisible to the naked human eye.
How much light will be emitted will depend on the life cycle of a particular star. A star in a separate life cycle will cast a different electromagnetic spectrum of light. However, astronomers have recently observed what has been a lot different and obscure than what people have observed before. For various reasons, the signals are disparate from the expected observation results of the astronomers.
High Polarization of the Radio Wave
One of the head figures in the entire study, named Ziteng Wang, has also made some statements about observing the obscure radio waves. He is professionally a Doctorate candidate in the school of physics at the University of Sydney. He has shared that the brightness of the mysterious object gets altered dramatically, and, on some occasions, it flickers.
Expounding further on the strange radio wave, the lead astronomy expert Ziteng Wang has said what has massively confused all the experts in the presence of high-polarization properties in the radio wave. This means that the light coming towards the earth in radio waves oscillates only in a solitary direction. Still, astronomers have observed a specific rotation with respect to time in that direction.
Ziteng Wang expressed his disbelief over this observation when he said that his fraternity has never observed a bizarre signal of this kind.
Wang explained that the rational conclusion from the initial observation was that the strange and obscure object could be a pulsar. A pulsar is a phenomenon in outer space, which occurs when a fast-spinning massive star has collapsed under its gravity. Now, as an outcome of the collapse, the luminary emits solar flares.
Wang and his team thought that the radio waves could be solar flares is the property of solar flare, which makes it highly random. The solar flares could stop after a minute, and it could stop after one hour, and there is no specific reason behind this variation.
However, soon after Wang’s team accumulated more data, they concluded that pulsar could not be the reason behind this detection of obscure signals. Ziteng Wang did not go deep with the terminology and concluded that radio waves’ characteristics are not close to what scientists expect to be coming from a pulsar.
The team of astronomical observers included professionals from Germany, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Spain, United States, and France. The object has now been designated as ASKAP J173608.2-321635, and the name of the object has been attributed to the radio telescope on which the signal was observed for the first time. The numbers in the designation denote the coordinates of the observation point.
The project was initiated to figure out the locations in the cosmos to detect never-seen-before entities in outer space.
Tara Murphy also joined in discussion with USA Today and said that the characteristics were nothing close to what they had seen before when the first detection was registered. Tara Murphy is the supervisor and an associate professor working in the same university, i.e., Sydney University.
“It was extraordinary,” she said when asked about the characteristics of the signal.
These radio waves have been in discussion for nine months. The instruments were detecting them for nine months, but when Wang’s team made an effort to see the objects visually, nothing was registered. However, the team was glad when a radio telescope registered the signal again some weeks ago.
The researchers are confused over changes in the characteristics that the object has shown for nine months. When the signal was again observed a few weeks ago, more changes were observed. Earlier, the signal used to last for weeks; however, they were intrigued when the signal disappeared after a day this time.
Now, no definitive answer has been given by either Ziteng Wang or Tara Murphy. However, Murphy is confident because more sophisticated and advanced telescopes are about to be unveiled in the coming years, and as they collect more data, some answers will eventually emerge.
Conclusion
A team of astronomical researchers led by Ziteng Wang and Tara Murphy have been following an object emitting peculiar radio for nine months now. They have observed unusual characteristics and signs of high polarization. There are no clear answers for now, but things will become apparent as more data will be accumulated and more powerful telescopes will be installed.
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