科學(xué)家接收到了來自宇宙另一邊的無線電信號

科學(xué)家接收到了來自宇宙另一邊的無線電信號

Someone may have forgotten to turn off the TV at the other end of the universe.

宇宙另一端的某個人可能忘記關(guān)電視了。

Or maybe someone has sent us an emoji from a faraway mothership.

或者可能是某個人從遙遠(yuǎn)的星球上向我們發(fā)送了一個表情包。

In other words, we don't have a clue what transmitted the single fast radio burst scientists picked up last week. But we do know where it came from: A galaxy far, far away.

換句話說，我們并沒有線索說明科學(xué)家上周接收到的單向快速信號波是什么發(fā)射出來的，但是我們知道它來自于哪里：一個遙遠(yuǎn)的星球。

The galaxy where the signal originated is similar in size to our own, but creates stars at a relatively slow rate. (Photo: pixelparticle/Shutterstock)

In a study published this week, researchers at the California Institute of Technology claim to have traced a single radio burst back to its home nearly 8 billion light-years away.

在本周發(fā)表的一項調(diào)查中，加利福尼亞科技研究所的研究員稱無線電信號可追蹤至80億光年以外。

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs — typically lasting anywhere from a fraction of a millisecond to a few milliseconds — have been enshrouded in mystery since they were first discovered in 2007. They're so powerful that they can make their way to our neck of the universe from impossibly far away, although it's rare that we receive them.

快速無線電突發(fā)(FRBs)-通常持續(xù)時間從一毫秒到幾毫秒不等-自2007年首次被發(fā)現(xiàn)以來一直保持著神秘狀態(tài)。它們是如此強大以致于可以從不可思議的遙遠(yuǎn)處來到我們的星球，盡管我們很少接收到。

That's likely to change over the next few years as new pace-scanning equipment that specializes in FRBs comes online.

隨著專門研究FRBs的新型速度掃描設(shè)備的問世，這種情況很可能在未來幾年發(fā)生改變。

Back in January, a newly built Canadian telescope picked up no fewer than 13 fast radio bursts, all seeming to originate some 1.5 billion light-years away.

今年1月，加拿大新建成的一架望遠(yuǎn)鏡觀測到至少13次快速無線電突發(fā)，它們似乎都來自15億光年之外。

What all fast radio bursts have in common is mathematical regularity. They beep-beep-beep at exactly the same intervals. But repeating FRBs are a lot easier to pick up and trace than a single radio burst.

所有快速無線電突發(fā)的共同之處在于數(shù)學(xué)上的規(guī)律性，它們以完全相同的間隔發(fā)出嗶嗶聲，但是重復(fù)的frb比單個的快速無線電突發(fā)更容易被接收和跟蹤。

"Finding the locations of the one-off FRBs is challenging because it requires a radio telescope that can both discover these extremely short events and locate them with the resolving power of a mile-wide radio dish," study author and Caltech professor Vikram Ravi explained a statement.

研究報告的撰寫者、加州理工學(xué)院教授維克拉姆·拉維在一份聲明中解釋說:“找到一次性frb的位置是一項挑戰(zhàn)，因為它需要一臺射電望遠(yuǎn)鏡，既能發(fā)現(xiàn)這些極短的事件，又能以一英里寬的無線電碟形天線的分辨率定位它們。”

The signal appears to hail from a galaxy similar in size to our own, a region with such a low rate of star formation that scientists call it a "mellow" galaxy.

這一信號似乎來自一個大小與我們相似的星系，這個星系的恒星形成率如此之低，以至于科學(xué)家們稱之為“成熟”星系。

A repeating fast radio burst, by its very nature, is much easier to receive than a one-off signal. (Photo: solarseven/Shutterstock)

The report comes a week after scientists in Australia announced the signal's discovery, dubbing it FRB 190523. To find that tiniest of blips in the cosmos, the researchers sifted through vast amounts of data collected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder.

澳大利亞科學(xué)家宣布了發(fā)現(xiàn)這一信號一周后，相關(guān)報道將其命名為FRB 190523。為了找到宇宙中最小的光點，研究人員篩選了澳大利亞平方公里陣列探路者收集的大量數(shù)據(jù)。

Keith Bannister, who led that study, called it "the big breakthrough that the field has been waiting for since astronomers discovered fast radio bursts."

領(lǐng)導(dǎo)這項研究的基思·班尼斯特稱，這是“自天文學(xué)家發(fā)現(xiàn)快速無線電突發(fā)以來，該領(lǐng)域一直在等待的重大突破”。

And now that researchers have zeroed in on its source, we may soon learn what caused it.

現(xiàn)在研究人員已經(jīng)鎖定了它的來源，我們可能很快就會知道它的成因。

In the meantime, that single, incredibly brief transmission can carry a universe of data. Its odyssey across staggering distances could reveal what lies between star systems.

與此同時，這個簡單的、令人難以置信的傳輸可以攜帶大量的數(shù)據(jù)。它跨越了驚人的距離，揭示了恒星系統(tǒng)之間的秘密。

"These bursts are altered by the matter they encounter in space," Jean-Pierre Macquart, the professor who authored last week's study, noted in a statement. "Now we can pinpoint where they come from, we can use them to measure the amount of matter in intergalactic space."

“這些爆發(fā)被它們在太空中遇到的物質(zhì)所改變，”麥格亞特教授在一份聲明中指出，他是上周那項研究的作者。“現(xiàn)在我們可以確定它們來自哪里，我們可以用它們來測量星系間空間的物質(zhì)量。”