Long-dead satellite emits strong radio signal, puzzling astronomers

Australia in Australia received a strange radio signal in June 2024 – one near our planet and so powerful that it left behind everything else in the sky for a moment. The search after the source has created new questions about the increasing debris problem in the Earth’s orbit.

At first, researchers thought that they observed something exotic.

“We’re all excited, we think we’ve discovered an unknown object near the Earth, C Clancy James said,”

Data Looking at James and his colleagues Askap The radio telescope, which has 36 plates of antenna series in the Wajarri Yamami country, is about three floors each. Normally, team data will look for a signal type called “Quick Radio Bang – – an energy gleam exploding from remote galaxies.

“These are incredibly powerful explosions on a radio (waves) on a milliseconds, James James said. “We don’t know what produces them and we try to learn, because they really challenge the known physics – they are very bright. We also try to use them to examine them Distribution of matter In the universe. “

According to James, astronomers believe that these explosions can come from magnetars. These objects are very intense residues of dead stars with strong magnetic fields. “Magnetars are completely, completely crazy, James James said. “Something is the most extreme things you can get in the universe before turning into a black hole.”

But the signal looked very close to Earth – so close that it could not be an astronomical object. “We were able to work after getting away from about 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles). We have a very definite match for this old satellite called Relay 2 – there are databases where you can look at any satellite and there are no other satellites in the nearby place,” he said.

“We’re all disappointed about it, but ‘Wait for a second. What really produced it?’ ‘We thought.

A big short circuit

NASA started Relay 2An experimental communication satellite to orbit in 1964. Relay 1He got up two years ago and was used to transfer the signals between the US and Europe and to publish the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Only three years later, his mission ended, and both of the two main instruments were already turned into a space insignificant. Since then, James and his colleagues are in orbit for our planet until they connect him to the strange signal they had identified last year.

But can a dead satellite suddenly come back to life after decades of silence for decades?

Astronomers to try to answer this question paper In his analysis, he is preparing to publish in the journal of Astrophysics Magazine on Monday.

They noticed that the source of the signal was not a remote galactic anomalies, but when they see that the image created by the telescope – a graphical representation of the data – is blurred.

“(T) The reason we took this blurred image was that the (source) was near the antenna – in tens of thousands of kilometers,” he said. “When you have a source close to the antenna, it comes to external antennas a little later and produces a curved wave façade unlike a flat wave when it is really far away.”

This incompatibility in the data between different antennas created turbidity, so researchers have eliminated the signal from external antennas to support the interior of the telescope, which spreads to about 2.3 miles in Australia outback.

“When we first detected it, it looked quite weak. But when we got closer, the brighter and brighter. The entire signal is about 30 billion of about 30 nanosaniye or seconds, but the main part is only three nanosaniye and in fact the border that our instrument can see. “Signal was about 2,000 or 3,000 times brighter than all other radio data we perceived (instrument) – the brightest thing in the sky was thousands of factors.”

Researchers have two ideas about what can cause such a strong spark. James, the main criminal, said that static electricity accumulation was suddenly released in the metal skin of the satellite.

“You start with an electron accumulation on the surface of the spacecraft. The spacecraft begins to charge due to the accumulation of electrons. And it will continue to charge some of the components of the spacecraft until it gets a short -circuit load,” he explained. “When you put your feet on the carpet and then you take your friend spark with your finger.”

A less likely reason, the effect of a micrieteoritis is a space rock that is not larger than 1 millimeter (0.039 inches): “A micriemetteorite affecting a 20 kilometers or higher spacecraft per second or a higher spacecraft will basically turn the ruins of a plasma (resulting) into an incredibly hot, at the same time a plasma. “And this plasma can burst a short radio wave.”

However, according to the research, strict conditions will need to be activated in order to occur in this micrieteoritis interaction. “We know that (electrostatic) discharge can actually be quite common, James said James. “When it comes to people, they are not dangerous. However, they can absolutely harm a spacecraft.”

Risk of confusion

Since it is difficult to monitor these discharge, James shows that the radio signal event can reveal “strange things for satellites ,, and that the researchers can use a much cheaper, easier device to be built to search for similar events rather than the spread of telescope used by researchers. He also thought that the ingredients to which the relay 2 was an early satellite may be more prone to accumulation of more static loads than modern satellites designed considering this problem.

However, realizing that the satellites can intervene in Galactic observations also offers a challenge and contributes to the list of threats. unwarranted. Since the beginning of the space age, it has reached approximately 22,000 satellite orbit, and more than half is still working. There are dead satellites for decades Hundreds of times collidedCreating a thick wreckage area and laying millions of small pieces 18,000 miles per hour.

“Basically, we are trying to see the nanosaniye explosions of Nanosaniye from the universe, and if the satellites can produce it, then we must be really careful, James James said, referring to the possibility of mixing satellite bursts with astronomical objects. “As more satellite increases, it will make such an experiment more difficult.”

According to James Cordes, a professor of astronomy of George Feldstein of Cornell, James and his team’s analysis of activity are “comprehensive and logical”. “Considering that the phenomenon of electrostatic discharge has been known for a long time, he wrote to CNN with an E -Posta: orum I think his interpretations are probably true. I am not sure that the idea of ​​micrieteoroids thrown as an alternative to the article is completely used. The second can trigger the first.”

Ralph Spencer, a professor of radio astronomy at the University of Manchester in the UK, acknowledges that the spark discharge from GPS satellites have been identified before, not being interested in work, the recommended mechanism is possible.

The study shows how astronomers should take care not to confuse radio explosions from astrophysical sources with electrostatic discharge or micrieteoroid explosions.

Spencer shows that a careful analysis is needed to show that such narrow blows may be more common than space than the previously thought, and that radiation is needed to show that human -made people come from stars and other astronomical objects rather than other astronomical objects, Spe

“New current experiments, such as square mileage series low -frequency series (such as (Ska-Low) Being built in Australia will be able to shed light on this new effect. “

Description: This story was updated to clarify the framework when the strange radio signal was detected.

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