Mystery radio signals recorded live from 5.5 billion light years

The mystery radio signals were observed with the Parkes radio telescope.

Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions

Mysterious radio signals coming from an unknown source 5.5 billion light years away have been observed live for the first time.

The fast radio bursts last just a few milliseconds, and just seven of these bright flashes have been discovered before – the first was found in 2007.

All were found retroactively by looking through old data from the Parkes radio telescope in eastern Australia and the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico.

However, an international team of astronomers, led by Emily Petroff from the Swinburne University of Technology, have seen a radio burst in real time.

John Mulchaey, acting director of the Carnegie Observatories, said: "These events are one of the biggest mysteries in the Universe. Until now, astronomers were not able to catch one of these events in the act."

Petroff added: "These bursts were generally discovered weeks or months or even more than a decade after they happened! We're the first to catch one in real time."

The intensity profile of the fast radio burst, showing how quickly it evolved in time, last only a few milliseconds. Before and after the burst, only noise from the sky was detected.

Credit: Swinburne Astronomy Productions

Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the scientists mobilised 12 telescopes around the world and in space to capture the burst.

After working out the burst location with the Parkes telescope, the others were used to make follow up observations on different wavelengths.

Daniele Malesani, astrophysicist at the University of Copenhagen, said: "Using the Swift space telescope we can observe light in the X-ray region and we saw two X-ray sources at that position."

"Then the two X-ray sources were observed using the Nordic Optical Telescope on La Palma."

Findings showed the source of the burst was located up to 5.5 billion light years from Earth.

However, the source of the radio bursts remain a mystery, the authors said. "We found out what it wasn't. The burst could have hurled out as much energy in a few milliseconds as the Sun does in an entire day," Malesani explained.

"But the fact that we did not see light in other wavelengths eliminates a number of astronomical phenomena that are associated with violent events such as gamma-ray bursts from exploding stars and supernovae, which were otherwise candidates for the burst."

Findings also suggest that the burst came from an area where there is a magnetic field because of the polarisation of light observed.

"The theories are now that the radio wave burst might be linked to a very compact type of object - such as neutron stars or black holes and the bursts could be connected to collisions or 'star quakes'. Now we know more about what we should be looking for," Malesani said.

More Information
"A real-time fast radio burst: polarization detection and multiwavelength follow-up" Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society - http://mnras.oxfordjournals.org/content/447/1/246.abstract

Arecibo observatory: Two New Programs Launching to Listen for Aliens

The 305-meter telescope at Arecibo Observatory is just one of a collection that SETI will use to search nearby stars for electronic signals that could indicate intelligent life. 

If such a civilization was utilizing a similar dish to image exoplanets, SETI's team should be able to detect it.

Credit: Arecibo Observatory

SETI is stepping up its search for alien lifeforms on far off worlds.

The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) program recently announced two new methods to search for signals that could come from life on other planets.

In the Panchromatic SETI project, multiple telescopes will scan a variety of wavelengths from 30 stars near the sun; the project will look for powerful signals beamed into space, potentially by intelligent extraterrestrials.

SETI is also launching an interplanetary eavesdropping program that is expected to search for messages beamed between planets in a single system.

"If we are polluting space, perhaps other extraterrestrials are leaking signals," Dan Werthimer, director of the Berkley SETI Research Center, told an audience during the Smithsonian Magazine's "The Future is Here" Festival in May. "Maybe they're sending something our way."

'Everything we've got'
Since humans made their first FM radio and television transmissions, signals from Earth have been spilling out into space, announcing the presence of intelligent life to any group that might be searching for it.

According to Werthimer, signals from the 1950s television show "I Love Lucy" have reached thousands of stars, while the nearest suns have already enjoyed the "The Simpsons."

If Earth has unintentionally leaked signs of its presence, other alien civilizations may have done the same thing.

SETI's new Panchromatic project will utilize a variety of telescopes covering a range of frequencies to scour the nearest stars.

"We're going to throw everything we've got at it," Werthimer added.

The panchromatic project will examine a sample of the 30 stars that lie within 5 parsecs (16 light-years) from the sun. The list includes 13 single stars, seven binary systems and one triple system.

Most of the stars are smaller than the sun, but the project will also examine two white dwarfs and one moderately evolved F star. No confirmed exoplanets have been found around any of the stars.

By setting distance as the criteria, the SETI team hopes to alleviate any bias that might otherwise result from focusing on systems similar to that of Earth. The team selected stars for study based only on how far they lie from the sun.

According to SETI-Berkeley's Andrew Siemion, chief scientist of the eavesdropping project, the search will also probe a diverse stellar population already well studied at many wavelengths.

"In the event of a non-detection, these attributes of the sample will allow us to place strong and broadly applicable limits on the presence of technology," Siemion told Space.com via email.

Observations from the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope in Europe and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia will begin over the summer and fall of 2014.

Instrument development and commissioning is still in progress for the Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) at Mount Wilson Observatory and the Nickel Telescope at Lick Observatory, both in California.

But according to Siemion, the pair should be ready at about the same time. The Nickel Telescope will conduct the first-ever SETI observations done in the near-infrared.

NASA NEOWISE: Asteroid 2014 HQ124 to Pass Earth Safely

This diagram shows the orbit of asteroid 2014 HQ124, and its location relative to Earth on June 8.

Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

A newfound asteroid will safely pass Earth on June 8 from a distance of about 777,000 miles (1.25 million kilometers), more than three times farther away than our moon.

Designated 2014 HQ124, the asteroid was discovered April 23, 2014, by NASA's NEOWISE mission, a space telescope adapted for scouting the skies for asteroids and comets.

The telescope sees infrared light, which allows it to pick up the infrared glow of asteroids and obtain better estimates of their true sizes.

The NEOWISE data estimate asteroid 2014 HQ124 to be between 800 and 1,300 feet (250 and 400 meters).

More than one hundred follow-up observations from NASA-funded, ground-based telescopes and amateur astronomers were used to pin down the orbit of the asteroid out to the year 2200, during which time it poses no risk to Earth.

Its trajectory will continue to be recalculated past that time frame as additional observations are received.

"There is zero chance of an impact," said Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

"In fact, it's fairly common for asteroids to pass near Earth. You'd expect an object about the size of 2014 HQ124 to pass this close every few years."

Yeomans said that 2014 HQ124 is a good target for radar observations using NASA's Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, California, and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, shortly after the closest approach on June 8.

Radar measurements of asteroid distances and velocities often enable computation of asteroid orbits much further into the future than otherwise known.

2014 HQ124 is designated a "potentially hazardous asteroid," or PHA, which refers to those asteroids 460 feet (140 meters) in size or larger that pass within 4.6 million miles (7.4 million kilometers) of Earth's orbit around the sun.

There are currently 1,484 known PHAs, but none pose a significant near-term risk of impacting Earth.

"Because NEOWISE is a space telescope observing the dawn and twilight sky at infrared wavelengths, it is particularly good at finding large NEOs that make relatively close passes to Earth," said Amy Mainzer, the principal investigator of NEOWISE at JPL.

"Using infrared light, we can estimate the object’s size, and we can tell that it reflects a fair amount of light. That means it’s most likely a stony object.”

NASA detects, tracks and characterizes asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using both ground- and space-based telescopes.

The Near-Earth Object Program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and identifies their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.

To date, U.S. assets have discovered more than 98 percent of the known near-Earth objects.

ISEE-3: Crowdfunding Goal To Reboot 36-Year-Old NASA Probe

A private team is preparing to make contact with a 36-year-old NASA spacecraft after reaching its $125,000 crowdfunding goal on Wednesday (May 14).

The ambitious private project, the first of its type, is attempting to reuse the International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 probe (ISEE-3), which launched in 1978 and ceased science operations in 1997.

ISEE-3/ICE Trajectory through 1986

Engineers are now planning to make course corrections with the spacecraft no later than mid-June, as ISEE-3 makes a close approach to Earth.

First contact, using the huge Arecibo Observatory radio dish in Puerto Rico,is planned next week.

Meeting these deadlines is pivotal, because the spacecraft won't return for another 30 to 40 years, team members say.

Artist's concept of the ISEE-3 probe's anticipated lunar flyby on Aug. 10, 2014.

Credit: Mark Maxwell / ISEE-3 Reboot Project

"Next week is crucial to the success of our project," project co-leader Dennis Wingo wrote in an update after the crowdfunding goal was reached.

"Using the dish at Arecibo gives us the best chance of being able to command the spacecraft in the very near term," Wingo added.

Track of the ISEE-3/ICE Spacecraft The Sky Mid May 2014

"Every day is exceedingly important to us right now. The spacecraft gets about the distance from the Earth to the moon closer each day, and now every day the amount of propulsion burn it takes to make the trajectory correction grows."

He added that, in all likelihood, the team will need even more money to extend ISEE-3's mission.

The team intends to move the spacecraft to the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 1 (ES-1), a gravitationally stable spot about 930,000 miles (1.5 million kilometers) away from Earth. But what ISEE-3 will end up doing is not known at this point. It could chase down a comet or study space weather, project leaders have said.

Remarkable Features below the surface of the Moon

Mare Serenitatis / Sea of Serenity. 

Credit: Bruce Campbell (Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum); Arecibo /NAIC; NRAO /AUI /NSF

New images of Earth's Moon reveal more than can be seen with the naked eye, thanks to the combined efforts of the two largest radio telescopes of their kind, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia and the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico.

To make these images, radar signals beamed from Arecibo's powerful transmitter penetrated far below the Moon's dusty surface.

The signals then rebounded back and were picked up by the sensitive receivers on the GBT.

This observing technique, known as bistatic radar, has been used to study many objects in our solar system, including asteroids and other planets.

The first image reveals previously hidden features around an area known as Mare Serenitatis, or the Sea of Serenity, which is near the Apollo 17 landing site.

The radar observations were able to "see" approximately 10-15 meters (33-50 feet) below the lunar surface.

The light and dark features are the result of compositional changes in the lunar dust and differences in the abundance of rocks buried within the soil.

The second image is a similar observation of the lunar impact crater known as Aristillus.

The radar echoes reveal geologic features of the large debris field created by the force of the impact.

The dark "halo" surrounding the crater is due to pulverized debris beyond the rugged, radar-bright rim deposits.

The image also shows traces of lava-like features produced when lunar rock melted from the heat of the impact.

The crater is approximately 55 kilometers (34 miles) in diameter and 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) deep.

Aristillus Crater. 

Credit: Bruce Campbell (Smithsonian Institution, National Air and Space Museum); Arecibo/NAIC; NRAO/AUI/NSF

These images help planetary scientists interpret the complex history of the Moon, which is often obscured by dust layers built up over billions of years, better understand the geology of earlier landing sites, and plan for future lunar exploration.

Arecibo Observatory undergoing emergency repairs after earthquake damage

The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico.

The NAIC Arecibo Observatory's 305 meter (1,000 ft) radio telescope is undergoing emergency repair after being damaged during a 6.4 magnitude earthquake on January 13, 2014.

A large cable that supports the telescope's receiver platform had "serious damage," according to Bob Kerr, the Director of the Arecibo Observatory.

Bob Kerr

"A protocol structural survey following the January 13 earthquake revealed serious damage to [a] short cable section, with apparent breach of several cable strands," Kerr told reporters.

"An experienced structural engineering firm was brought to assess the damage, and to consider repair options."

The earthquake's epicenter was located in the ocean about 60 kilometers (37 miles) northwest of Arecibo and was one of the largest to hit Puerto Rico in several years.

The quake caused some floor cracking in buildings and homes on the island, as well as power outages, but no major damages or injuries, officials said.

There were, however, at least 70 aftershocks with at least three of a magnitude 3.5 or greater.

The famous radio observatory is located near Puerto Rico's north coast, and opened in 1963. It was built inside a depression left by a sinkhole and is the largest curved focusing dish on Earth.

The dish's surface is made of thousands of perforated aluminum panels, each about 1 by 2 meters (3 by 6 feet), supported by a mesh of steel cables.

The receiver is on a 900-ton platform suspended 137 meters (450 feet) above the dish by 18 cables running from three reinforced concrete towers.

It was one of these 18 cables that was damaged, and this particular cable was actually a known potential problem.

Kerr said that during original construction of the telescope in 1962, one of the original platform suspension cables that was delivered to the observatory was too short, and another short cable section was "spliced" to provide sufficient reach to the platform.

"That cable segment and splice near the top of one of the telescope towers was consequently more rigid than the balance of the suspension system," Kerr said.

"When the earthquake shook the site, just after midnight on January 13, it is that short cable and splice that suffered damage."

The platform hangs above the Arecibo dish, supported by cables. 

Credit: Cornell University.

"You might say that our structural Achilles heel was exposed," Kerr added.

Inspectors from New York's Ammann & Whitney Bridge Construction, who have been inspecting the Arecibo observatory site since 1972, were brought in to access the situation.

Kerr said a relatively low-cost (less than $100,000) repair option was designed, and materials are now being procured to complete a repair that is expected to bring the telescope back into full service.

Approaching Asteroid 1998 QE2 has a satellite Moon

First radar images of asteroid 1998 QE2 were obtained when the asteroid was about 3.75 million miles (6 million kilometers) from Earth.

CREDIT: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSSR

A huge asteroid set to sail past Earth on Friday has its own moon, NASA scientists have just discovered.

Researchers obtained a series of radar images of the approaching asteroid 1998 QE2 late Wednesday (May 29) using the Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif.

Images captured over the course of two hours showed that the asteroid is actually a binary system.

The main space rock is the size of nine ocean liners, roughly 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) across, and the satellite that orbits it is estimated to be 2,000 feet (600 meters) wide, according to NASA.

Binary systems are quite common among near-Earth asteroids. Of space rocks at least 655 feet (200 meters) across, about 16 percent are binary or triple systems, NASA officials said.

1998 QE2 poses no threat of hitting Earth during the flyby, space agency officials assure. Its closest approach will occur at 4:59 EDT on Friday (May 31) and it is expected to pass at least 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers) away from the planet.

The asteroid won't be visible to the unaided eye as it zips by.

Though harmlessly far away, this will be the nearest 1998 QE2 gets to Earth in the next two centuries.

As it passes, the asteroid will be closely watched by astronomers. In addition to the 230-foot-wide (70 meter) Deep Space Network antenna, astronomers will also be using the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico to observe 1998 QE2 until June 9.