Tianyan received a mysterious signal and repeated it 1,863 times in less than 2 months. It is difficult to avoid astronomers' attention.
Because the working principle of the Sky Eye is to accept the electromagnetic waves in the universe , there has been a misunderstanding of using microwave oven signals as alien signals in history.
China FAST Sky Eye
So Sky Eye did not dare to rashly affirm the authenticity of this signal. After careful study, it can be determined that this is a signal 1.3 billion light years away.
So, in the face of such a signal, should we reply?
Should we reply
heavenly eye and universe
Heavenly eye is the title of the largest radio telescope in my country, with the English abbreviation "FAST".
Although it is called the Sky Eye, in fact, it is more like the human "Sky Ear" . As a radio telescope, it does not "see" the universe, but "listen" the universe .
FAST Sky Eye is similar to an super large radar , which accepts electromagnetic waves from the universe. The electromagnetic waves are the carrier of signals, and there will be a lot of information we want in it.
The exploration range of the sky eye is 3.7 billion light-years . Since it comes without rejection, it will inevitably cause trouble. That is, will receive electromagnetic waves on the earth every day, such as aircraft signals, 5G networks, WIFI, etc.
space telescope
These signals generated by humans will have a certain impact on the sky eye , so the daily task of scientists working in the sky eye is to to eliminate these earth interference signals .
Of course, will never miss other cosmic signals . So how do scientists distinguish between cosmic signals and signals sent by humans?
mainly depends on the frequency . The purpose of humans using electromagnetic waves is to transmit information, so the frequency of electromagnetic waves used by humans is fixed, usually in 2.4GHz.
human signal
while The electromagnetic waves in the universe are messy and there is no rule to follow . If the frequency of a received signal is stable, then most of them are not electromagnetic waves in the universe. If the frequency is close to 2.4GHz, most of them are human own signals.
However, the routine is not applicable to all situations , because it is not ruled out that there is a stable emission source in the universe.
For example, the Canadian Observatory once accepted a stable electromagnetic wave in the universe. It has been emitted by at a fixed frequency for a long time.
accept signal
For scientists, every electromagnetic wave in cannot let go of . A casual electromagnetic wave may solve the problem.
Among the electromagnetic waves received by the celestial eye, there is one type of celestial bodies with the most, which is pulsar . The predecessor of the pulsar
was the massive star . After these stars "dead", they evolved into neutron stars , some of which emit pulses.
Since the Sky Eye was put into use, the more pulsars found in have become , and more than 600 more are on the original basis.
However, the Sky Eye also has many unexpected gains, such as A strong signal from 1.3 billion light years away .
pulsar
1.3 billion light years away
scientific journal "Natural " published Research progress on FAST Sky Eye in my country. In just 54 days, the same signal source 1863 times were received. These signals come from a cosmic phenomenon - Radio burst .
radio burst is a fast and frequent signal release process of . Its characteristics are fast, urgent, and repeated times. The first time humans discovered radio burst was in 2007. is a very young cosmic phenomenon . People still cannot explain what its specific origin is.
Astronomers only know that radio bursts usually last for a few milliseconds to a few seconds , and the energy released during this period is equivalent to the energy released by the sun for a year or even longer.
The source of radio bursts is guessed
According to international practice, radio bursts have their own number. The continuous radio bursts discovered by the Sky Eye are FRB20201124A.
This is the longest-lasting fast radio burst in ever. The previous record is the radio burst found by the Tianyan.
Regarding the reasons for the birth of radio bursts, scientists are more inclined to believe that this is generated by supernova explosion .
Supernova explosion is the process of "death" of massive stars in the universe. Due to the imbalance of internal and external pressure, the explosion of large stars is caused. The energy released in this process is enough to destroy many celestial bodies around . After the explosion, only a piece of wreckage is left to form a nebula.
Supernova Big Bang
During this process, the kernel of the protostar may become a neutron star or a black hole .
This signal that lasted for more than 50 days is likely to be a super big explosion . The mass of the original star is very huge, and is hundreds of times that of the sun .
According to the calculations of celestial ophthalmologists, the explosion of is about 1.3 billion light-years away from the earth, and belongs to another supergalaxy in the universe.
When this explosion occurred, Earth was 1.3 billion years ago , and life on Earth was still in its original form.
1.3 billion years ago biological
However, supernova explosion is just a hypothesis of rapid radio bursts, and it does not rule out that this signal is another source, such as the nuclear war in the universe, or the attempt of aliens to communicate with us.
If you want to understand the source of this signal, we can also try to reply. If you keep thinking about it, there will be an echo, then most of this signal is sent by a smart life body.
is just, why don’t humans use this method?
is the signal emitted by aliens?
should reply to
Regarding why humans do not reply to these signals, many people speculate that it is to protect humans , because no one knows who is opposite. What if it is an evil alien?
Of course, the above statement is just one reason, but not the most important reason. The reason why humans do not reply is that they are too far apart.
FRB20201124A's signal source is 1.3 billion light-years away from the earth. If humans answer it, then it will take 1.3 billion years for our reply to it. When will it be possible to have a response?
The location of the solar system in the Milky Way
If the aliens answered us, it will be another 1.3 billion years since we sent it, , a total of 2.6 billion years, , humans are probably not on the earth, The user you call is no longer in the service area .
Let’s talk about it, how do you know that aliens want to care about humans? may even think that the earthlings are too noisy .
For example, the level of human civilization is less than level 1, and the gap between humans and advanced civilizations is greater than that between humans and animals.
After all, we are separated from animals by 0.8 civilization gap, while humans and higher civilizations are separated from at least level 1 civilization gap. How humans view animals, aliens view humans .
Advanced Civilization
But more often, signals answered in the past as a rock sinks into the sea , why do you have to go through a lot of trouble?
This radio burst may also be caused by the war in the universe. Aliens are fighting, so they have no time to pay attention to you.
In short, there are three reasons why humans do not reply to these signals:
The first is to protect themselves . We humans are still a long way from advanced civilization and need to develop, so don’t straits.
The second is that does not need . It starts in billions of years and doubles the time for communication. Human lifespan cannot afford such exchanges.
The third is without results . If it is really an alien signal, people will not be interested in the earth after replying. They will only say: "That small trumpet that does not have level 1, turn off the microphone!"
If it is not a signal sent by aliens, then there will be no more after sending it. will have to spend hundreds of millions of years waiting, which is not worth the loss.
Alien: That low-level number, turn off the MS
Space Telescope
Why are the space telescopes launched by humans basically optical? Why don’t humans launch radio telescopes into space?
This actually involves the working principles of two types of telescopes. The radio telescope uses radio wave , with a frequency of 3kHz~300GHz, and a wavelength range of 00km~1mm. Such waves will not be disturbed by the atmosphere and can directly reach the surface of the earth.
Optical telescopes are also electromagnetic waves to some extent, because light is also electromagnetic waves. The frequency of visible light in is between 380 and 750 THz and the wavelength is between 780 and 400 nm. They will be affected by the earth's atmosphere.
Radio waves can basically reach the surface of the earth
The higher the frequency, the harder the electromagnetic waves to reach the earth, such as ultraviolet rays, γ rays , etc. Although they are harmful to the earth, also carries a lot of information to explore .
In order to receive these electromagnetic waves that are difficult to receive on the earth, humans must let the optical telescope enter space so that they can get rid of the interference from the earth.
optical telescopes are divided into visible light and invisible light types. Hubble uses visible light, while Weber uses invisible light.
Of course, this does not mean that building radio telescopes in the universe is completely unnecessary. Scientists are planning to build a radio telescope on the moon, because this can stay away from the intervention of Earth's signals, and receives a cleaner cosmic signal .
Establishing a radio telescope on the moon
The sky eye is not the limit of human beings to explore the universe. Human beings will receive more signals in the future, and there is always one that is useful.
