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