The presence of life in outer space was known for decades, but very less information was available on its existence.
The fast and shot cosmic rays have amazed the astronomers as their existence was discovered a decade ago. Some astronomers think that these radio bursts coming from outer space could shed light on alien life.
The latest study supports this fact and confirms the existence of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) that are striking the Earth from an outer space.
What Are FRBs?
FRBs are highly energized, an astrophysical phenomenon without any origin or specific pattern seen as a radio pulse that lasts only for milliseconds.
These small, bright, unresolved flashes of FRBs lasts only for few milliseconds which makes them difficult for study.
The first radio burst was noticed by Parkes Observatory in the year 2007. This first radio burst was named as the Lorimer Burst FRB 010724. It was observed using a radio telescope.
The discovery of first FRBs
Manisha Caleb, a student at the Australia National University, the ARC Center of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, or CAASTRO and Swinburne University of Technology conducted a study to find out the origin of these FRBs.
The Caleb and her team were able to discover three FRBs with the help of Molonglo radio telescope. The telescope is situated at 25 miles away from Canberra. It was earlier believed that FRBs were nothing but local interferences jutting into the line of detection.
In the year 2013, CAASTRO scientists have noticed that Molonglo radio telescope was able to observe these FRBs from a close distance due to the exceptionally good focal length of the telescope.
Chris Flynn from Swinburne University has said: “The traditional single dish radio telescopes have trouble in estimating that radio bursts that originate from outer space.”
The Molonglo telescope has large focal length, hence providing a huge data collection and large viewing field. Thus, the Molonglo telescope was able to give the best result for discovering FRB.
The main aim of researchers was to design a software that could store a massive amount of data up to 1000 TB.
The research study was published on March 29 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.