Astronomers reported the discovery of “strange signals” going in the direction from the small, dim stars located at about 11 light years from Earth. Signals were received on may 12. They were caught, the Arecibo Observatory’s giant radio telescope located in Puerto Rico. As it turned out, they go from the object of Ross 128, red dwarf star, which is about 2,800 times fainter than our Sun. Is there a near this star, any planet, astronomers still unknown.
Astrobiology of the University of Puerto Rico’s Abel Mendez said that the observation of this star was carried out for 10 minutes. Within this time, the signal was located “almost periodic”. Mendez believes that it is very unlikely that this signal could be responsible some intelligent extraterrestrial life, but notes that the opportunity to discard too early.
“People from the Institute of searching for intelligent extraterrestrial life (SETI) was very interested in those signals,” said Mendez in an email to the journalists of Business Insider.
Despite the fact that Arecibo is quite known for its contribution to the search for signals from possible extraterrestrial civilizations, the telescope is also widely used to observe distant galaxies and near-earth asteroids. According to Mendez, the signal is probably coming from some man-made object. Perhaps we are talking about a satellite crossing in the observation field of view of the telescope.
“The angle at Arecibo is quite wide. Therefore, it is likely that the signal was not caused by the star, and some other object caught in the field of vision of the telescope”, — said Mendez, adding that perhaps “a communication satellite crossed the frequency, at which we were observing”.
However, in his personal blog July 12, Mendez again wrote about the Ross 128, stating that “we have never before seen such a level of radiation produced by the satellites” and describing these signals was “very peculiar”.
Another likely explanation of the observed signals can be the star of the flash or a huge burst of energy from the surface of the star. For example, the rate of similar emissions from the surface of the Sun can reach the light. In parallel with this are very powerful emissions of radiation, which can affect communication satellites and equipment on Earth.
Stellar flares can be accompanied by a slower, but also more energy-charged coronal mass ejections. Streams of highly charged sun particles often interact with the magnetic field of our planet causing a geomagnetic storm, at the same time crippling our electric grid and disabling our electrical appliances.
“Success will re-detect the signal coming from the direction of the stars, and not from its environment. If the signal we get, the mystery of its source will become even dimmer. If it turns out that the observed phenomenon is rare in nature, in this case, we generally can not know his nature,” says Mendez.
Astronomer also added in his blog that other radio telescopes may not have a sufficient capacity to catch these signals. With one exception – monstrous Chinese Spherical radio telescopes with pyatisotletny aperture (FAST). But the trouble is that FAST at the moment is on maintenance (calibration), and Mendez doesn’t know exactly when it will be completed. So to re-check the availability of signals of the Arecibo telescope is going to observe the red dwarf Ross 128 a few times, since 16 Jul.
Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, confirmed that his group “is very interested in these signals,” and may enable a powerful Antenna array Allen (Allen Telescope Array) in California “for verification”.
“The likelihood that these signals of extraterrestrial origin, is. Therefore, they are interesting,” — said Shostak in correspondence with the same edition of Business Insider.
Interestingly, at the moment, according to Shostak, a high suspicion in the form of interplanetary communications carries only one on the Earth a radio signal.
“This is the WOW signal. For us, it still remains very suspicious,” added the scientist.
Astronomers have caught a strange radio signal from the stars is 11 light years from us
Nikolai Khizhnyak