There is still a lot to learn about outer space, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, known as NASA, is continuing its research. Astronomers recently discovered a strange signal coming from a galaxy other than our own. Find out all the details.
NASA identifies signals coming from another galaxy; They issued a statement
NASA highlighted in a statement that this result was obtained thanks to the researchers’ review of data collected over a period of 13 years by the Fermi Space Telescope, which uses gamma rays.
“We found a much stronger signal and in a different part of the sky than we were looking for,” Alexander Kashlinsky, a cosmologist at the University of Maryland, said in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Astronomers were searching for the world's oldest light, and they found a strange signal from another galaxy
The discovery of this signal from another galaxy was presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, USA, where other discoveries from the mentioned research were also presented, such as some unknown structures that allowed them to catch the telescope.
At the event, scientists noted that they began analyzing their data by searching for gamma rays associated with the oldest light in the universe, which is known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB).
In 1965, they discovered it in the form of weak microwaves, but more serious research discovered “dipole” gamma rays, which are a group of two electric or magnetic poles of equal size and opposite sign.
Chris Schrader, an astrophysicist at the Catholic University of America in Washington, USA, explained that the signal from these rays is in a very similar direction, in addition to having approximately the same magnitude.
He added: “We found a gamma-ray dipole, but its peak is in the meridional sky, far from the CMB, and its size is 10 times larger than what we could expect from our motion.”
Schrader added that although it wasn't what they were looking for in their research, it could be a major advance in detecting waves from other galaxies, allowing them to continue learning what lies beyond the galaxy in which Earth is located.
“We suspect it may be related to a similar feature recorded in high-energy cosmic rays,” he said.
Do you think the signal they got from another galaxy could be a sign of life? Don't forget to leave your opinion about it in the comments section.
