天文學(xué)家設(shè)計(jì)AI，來(lái)更好地探測(cè)神秘的太空信號(hào)

天文學(xué)家設(shè)計(jì)AI，來(lái)更好地探測(cè)神秘的太空信號(hào)

Scientists are using AI to solve the mystery of the radio waves from deepest space which keep slamming into telescopes on Earth.

科學(xué)家們正在利用AI來(lái)破解來(lái)自太空深處無(wú)線電波的奧秘，這些無(wú)線電波不斷地撞擊地球上的望遠(yuǎn)鏡。

The sudden and baffling flashes are known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and until now have been virtually impossible to spot and trace.

這種突然而令人困惑的閃光被稱為快速無(wú)線電爆炸(FRB)，到目前為止幾乎不可能被發(fā)現(xiàn)和跟蹤。

They are intense pulses of radio waves that last no longer than the blink of an eye and come from far beyond our Milky Way galaxy.

它們是強(qiáng)烈的無(wú)線電波脈沖，持續(xù)時(shí)間不超過(guò)一眨眼的時(shí)間，來(lái)自我們銀河系之外的遙遠(yuǎn)地方。

NRAO Outreach/T. Jarrett (IPAC/Caltech); B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

No one knows what causes the strange bursts, but theories range from highly magnetized neutron stars and supermassive black holes to signs of an advanced civilization.

沒(méi)有人知道是什么導(dǎo)致了這種奇怪的爆發(fā)，但是理論上，從強(qiáng)磁化的中子星和超大質(zhì)量黑洞到先進(jìn)文明的標(biāo)志都有可能。

Now astronomers are using artificial intelligence to pinpoint the source of the pulses, in the hope of explaining who or what is sending them to Earth.

現(xiàn)在天文學(xué)家正利用AI來(lái)精確定位脈沖的來(lái)源，以期解釋是誰(shuí)或是什么將脈沖發(fā)送到地球上。

Now Wael Farah, a doctoral student at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, developed a machine-learning system that recognized the signatures of FRBs as they arrive.

現(xiàn)在，WaelFarah，澳大利亞墨爾本斯溫伯恩理工大學(xué)的博士生，開發(fā)了一種機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)系統(tǒng)，可以識(shí)別FRBs到達(dá)時(shí)的簽名。

Farah’s system trained the Molonglo telescope in Canberra to spot FRBs and switch over to its most detailed recording mode, producing the finest records of FRBs yet.

法拉的系統(tǒng)訓(xùn)練堪培拉的莫龍格羅望遠(yuǎn)鏡識(shí)別出FRB，并切換到最詳細(xì)的記錄模式，產(chǎn)生了迄今為止最好的FRB記錄。

“It is fascinating to discover that a signal that traveled halfway through the universe,” he said. The research was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

他說(shuō):“發(fā)現(xiàn)一種信號(hào)穿越了半個(gè)宇宙，這很令人著迷。”這項(xiàng)研究最近發(fā)表在《皇家天文學(xué)會(huì)月刊》上。

Many of the intense flashes have traveled billions of light-years across space.

許多強(qiáng)烈的閃光在太空中傳播了數(shù)十億光年。

Some scientists have suggested that the bursts could be from rapidly rotating neuron stars but others think they are messages from aliens.

一些科學(xué)家認(rèn)為這些爆發(fā)可能來(lái)自快速旋轉(zhuǎn)的神經(jīng)元恒星，但其他人認(rèn)為它們是來(lái)自外星人的信息。

They have complex, mysterious structures, patterns of peaks and valleys in radio waves that play out in just milliseconds, reports Space.com.

據(jù)Space.com報(bào)道，它們有復(fù)雜而神秘的結(jié)構(gòu)，無(wú)線電波中的波峰和波谷模式，在短短幾毫秒內(nèi)就能顯現(xiàn)出來(lái)。

That’s not the sort of signal astronomers expect to come from a simple explosion, or any other events known to scatter spikes of electromagnetic energy across space.

這不是天文學(xué)家們所期望的來(lái)自簡(jiǎn)單爆炸的信號(hào)，也不是任何已知的在太空中散射電磁能量的信號(hào)。

Ever since the first one was uncovered in 2007, using data recorded in 2001, there’s been an ongoing effort to pin down their source.

自從2007年第一個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)以來(lái)，利用2001年記錄的數(shù)據(jù)，人們一直在努力查明它們的來(lái)源。

But FRBs arrive at random times and places and existing human technology and observation methods aren’t well-primed to spot these signals.

但FRB到達(dá)的時(shí)間和地點(diǎn)都是隨機(jī)的，現(xiàn)有的人類技術(shù)和觀測(cè)方法，還不能很好地發(fā)現(xiàn)這些信號(hào)。

In January, we told how astronomers discovered a set of mysterious radio signals that could have been sent to Earth by a distant alien race.

今年1月，我們講述了天文學(xué)家如何發(fā)現(xiàn)一組神秘的無(wú)線電信號(hào)，這些信號(hào)可能是由一個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的外星種族發(fā)送到地球的。

The repeating Fast Radio Burst, only the second ever found, was fired from a spot 1.5 billion light-years from our planet – and experts are baffled as to what created it.

這是迄今為止發(fā)現(xiàn)的第二次重復(fù)的快速射電暴，它是從距離地球15億光年的地方發(fā)射的——專家們對(duì)它的成因感到困惑。