The universe is a melting pot of mysteries that we may or may not notice
asteroids meteors comets solar flares gamma-ray bursts and sometimes strange unidentified signals
as if the idea of what might be lurking out there in deep space isn't terrifying enough
imagine it reaching out to us welcome to Factnomenal
and today we will be analyzing some of the most chilling mysterious signals ever detected by nasa
well we can't exactly stop hurtling through space and time on our tiny blue space rock but we can
focus our efforts on the other two-thirds of this precautionary guideline nasa has quite the
impressive array of scientific equipment to both look and listen for the eerie signal sent to earth
wait listen sound can't travel through space because there's no medium for sound to travel
through everyone knows that well it turns out that radio waves particularly in the
high frequency range around 1 to 2 gigahertz are particularly good at traveling through the cosmos
when they are detected on earth they register as sounds astronomers and physicists can interpret
as it happens radio waves seem to be humanity's best choice for both sending and detecting cosmic
signals due to their unique ability to travel at the speed of light while avoiding absorption by
cosmic dust or clouds with a narrow band frequency and radio telescopes highly tuned to the correct
portion of the spectrum we just might get a hit on a signal indicating extraterrestrial intelligence
radio astronomy has been around since Carl G Janski stumbled across a radio signal he
believed to have originated from outside the solar system in 1933 however it wasn't
until 2007 that the existence of extra galactic signals known as fast radio bursts FRBs erupted
onto the scientific scene in a study conducted by Duncan Lorimer and his student David Narkivich
the proven existence of signals sent to earth from other galaxies sparked numerous
project and agency collaborations to uncover the mysteries that lay at the heart of these signals
since 2007 fast radio bursts have been living rent-free in the minds of perplexed physicists and
astronomers for their truly inconclusive nature globally we have documented the occurrence of
somewhere around a thousand of these eerie bright flashes but only been able to track about 15 of
them to particular galaxies thanks to nasa's Hubble telescope a group of five short-lived
intense FRBs were traced to the arms of their source spiral galaxies this new data closes some
doors pertaining to the causality of these events but opens plenty more in the process
nasa's Hubble telescope successfully traced the powerful radio bursts to
the arms of five relatively young and massive spiral galaxies that are still forming stars
they did not however originate from the regions of the galaxy scientists had anticipated
since the radio bursts seem to be caused by immense flares of electromagnetic energy
scientists expected to find them coming from the younger more violently exploding bright
regions of the galaxy or in the older regions where one might find a rare neutron star merger
finding the FRBs in the arms of young galaxies likely rules out the possibility of powerfully
explosive star deaths and neutron star collisions which can take billions of years to play out this
recent nasa discovery also rules out underlying dwarf galaxies as the progenitors of fast radio
bursts it is important and quite interesting to note that the light and radio emissions nasa is
able to procure tell the narratives of galaxies a long time ago because they are so far far away
sound familiar the galaxy studied by nasa's Hubble lies somewhere between 400 million
and 9 billion light years away from earth this means the universe was about half its current age
when the events that triggered the FRB originally occurred in this way we can reasonably expect FRBs
to serve as a mode of effective intergalactic communications as civilizations are likely to
die out or advance before a transmission reaches its destination so what happens in these young
massive spiral galaxies to cause such an intense signal to be recorded here on earth
the prevailing theory places blame on one of the strangest objects in the cosmos magnetars
though they sound as if you'd find them in your newest fantasy novel these beasts can
be found in the smoldering cores of deceased supernovae where they formed when massive
stars much larger than our own die in their phenomenally beautiful and destructive fashion
the inner layer of matter becomes hyper dense holding the stellar mass equivalent of atoms in a
sphere no larger than a city 15 miles in diameter nasa estimates a mere teaspoon of neutron star
weighs over 4 billion tons making it over 600 times heavier than the Great Pyramid of Giza
neutron stars have incredibly strong magnetic fields on the order of trillions of times that
of earth's that can even alter the natural arrangement of atoms stretching them into
noodle-shaped electric field lines magnetars are a rare type of neutron star that possess magnetic
fields another one thousand times stronger they reign dominant as the universe's strongest magnets
the crust of these magnetars is held together tightly by the intense electromagnetic field
and when disrupted or shifted in the slightest fashion like we're talking millimeters here
explodes violently in what's called a starquake sometimes releasing as much energy as the sun
has emitted in the last 100 000 years in just one tenth of a second a mix of x-ray and radio signal
flare-ups in the milky way offered one heck of an exciting development for astronomers and
physicists in April of 2020. signals of this intensity had never been observed within our
own galaxy before and data from multiple space agencies and universities including nasa's wind
mission and survey for transient astronomical radio emission 2 or stair 2 for short confirm
the corresponding release of both x-ray and radio signals the source of the FRB detected was traced
to a region associated with a known magnetar SGR 1935 located in the constellation vulpecula about
14 000 to 41 000 light years away this exceptionally observable burst likely occurred at
or near the magnetic pole of the magnetar making it stronger than typical eruptions magnetars are
no doubt interesting and worth keeping an eye on as the likely culprit behind the one-off
radio bursts that last all of a fraction of a second however not all radio bursts are the same
easily the most mysterious category of radio bursts observed by nasa is that
of the repeating variety let's take a second to review what we think we know about radio bursts
number one the most likely progenitors of the events are random spectacularly cataclysmic
eruptions of electromagnetic energy coming from the surface of the strongest magnets in existence
and number two radio waves represent the possibility for effective signal
transmission and detection through the medium of transgalactic space
so how weird and out would you be if i told you that sometimes these incredibly strange
bursts of radio waves are narrow banded and repeat for observable periods of time
over the course of 47 days in 2019 a single source dubbed FRB121102 was observed to have caused more
than 1 650 fast radio bursts making it by far the largest set of the phenomena ever recorded
since its discovery more repeat signals have been detected and studied by nasa
repeat fast radio bursts offer a unique set of questions related to the origin of intense flashes
in the observable universe however scientists are running into issues with inconsistencies in how
light interacts with a magnetic environments near the bursts as well as pulse widths
that infer longer durations for repeat signals compared to non-repeating FRBs since no natural
phenomena can be currently applied to the puzzling anomalies ascribed to repeating fast radio bursts
many are beginning to entertain the theory of extraterrestrial attempts at communication what do
you think be sure to let us know in the comments below the prospect of what repeating frbs could
mean to astronomers and physicists really is both exciting and frightening but these are far from
the only mystifying signals nasa has encountered with instruments able to measure and observe the
universe in nearly all known energy spectra nasa stumbles across some pretty unsettling signals
in 2014 nasa's Chandra x-ray observatory and fermi gamma-ray space telescope
discovered a bizarrely intense event in a small galaxy about 10.7 billion light years away
x-ray flashes typically indicate a large release of energy sometimes our universe gets extremely
violent with explosions that can affect entire regions of galaxies in a single event
the event captured by nasa saw at least 1 000 times more energy produced than all the stars
in the galaxy in just one day after that day the galaxy's brightness subsided and no
similar event occurred again no phenomena of this magnitude has ever been observed in the universe
gamma-ray bursts or grbs for short have frightened astronomers ever since their discovery
when a neutron star merges with another star or is swallowed by a black hole
absurd amounts of gamma rays can be ejected in a particular direction if a burst is aimed at earth
and the source is close enough humanity may be wiped from existence in a fraction of a second
the event nasa observed does not offer enough data to definitively offer a cause
however due to the peculiar lack of afterglow and variety of x-ray observed
the involvement of a black hole was ruled out the sheer intensity of the x-ray burst is
puzzling not to mention the source could not be traced either we are fortunate to have observed
the blast to be multiple billions of light years away the frightening part is considering
the effects of a similar GRB event in our own milky way galaxy hopefully nasa receives more
conclusive data soon using both Chandra x-ray observatory and fermi gamma-ray space telescope
preferably data concerning an event multiple billions of light years away again
while nasa studies cryptic anomalies from millions and billions of light years away they also concern
themselves with the immediate dangers that are lurking in our own planetary backyard there is
essentially an infinite number of objects zipping through space at any given moment that could end
life on earth it's just something we're used to by now earth's atmosphere protects us from an
astounding amount of scary space rocks and harmful particles but one mystery that remains among the
most frightening is the existence of cosmic rays ranging in velocity from half to nearly the speed
of light charged particles or nuclei thought to be ejected from the most violent of cosmic events
race into our solar system from all over the galaxy and potentially beyond nasa's stratospheric
observatory for infrared astronomy or SOFIA 747 jet climbs to incredible altitudes to collect
vitally important data concerning energetic cosmic rays most of the cosmic particles are
of lower energy and earth's magnetic field has no problem dealing with it but high energy particles
can act like nanoscopic bullets tearing through the DNA of exposed astronauts and space travelers
you can see how learning more about the mysterious origins of cosmic rays can benefit the safety and
future of humanity nasa sophia attempts to detect hydrides in the milky way by observing these
concentrations nasa hopes to uncover more of the clues surrounding these strange particles origin
and abundance in our galaxy the universe abounds incomprehensibly further with each word you hear
from this video it is both beautiful and terrifying creative and destructive
impartially chaotic nasa strives to record and interpret the enigmatic signals it gives
from the living history ceaselessly being played out over our heads it spends billions of years in
the making and has more to tell us than we will ever be able to know so what fascinates you the
most about the universe tell us in the comments and as always thanks for watching Factnomenal