The Lorimer Burst and fast radio bursts
The account
Millisecond radio flashes from other galaxies were thought to be signs of alien technology.
What investigators found
They are extreme natural phenomena, and magnetars, ultra-magnetic neutron stars, are the prime suspects.
The story
In 2007, astronomer Duncan Lorimer and his student David Narkevic were combing through old data from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia when they found an extremely powerful radio flash lasting just a few milliseconds. Recorded in 2001, it appeared to come from far beyond our galaxy. Nothing like it had ever been seen.
The scientific community was skeptical. For years, similar signals at Parkes were treated as interference, and some of them were in fact traced to a microwave oven at the observatory itself. But starting in 2013, new flashes were recorded by other telescopes, and the phenomenon got a name: fast radio bursts. Thousands of them are known today. Their origin is still not settled, but in 2020 a magnetar inside the Milky Way emitted a similar pulse, strengthening the natural explanation.
Watch right here
Cases from the same region
- The geysers of Enceladus2005 · Enceladus, moon of Saturn
- The puzzle of methane on Mars2004 · Martian atmosphere and Gale Crater
- SHGb02+14a, the SETI@home signal2003 · Arecibo Radio Telescope, Puerto Rico / Between Pisces and Aries
- Rats, doors and faces in the rocks of Mars2012 · Surface of Mars, rover images