27 Jun '08 21:24>2 edits
A new cluster of space probes, 4 of them operating together, has pinpointed the location of a noise burst coming from Aurora above the earth. This radio noise is called 'Auroral Kilometric Radiation' or AKR.
The interesting thing AKR the probes revealed is the location and strength of the signal. It comes from a small region of space above the atmosphere which beams into space but blocked by the ionosphere. That turns out to be a good thing, it is 10,000 times stronger than any other kind of signal from terrestrial transmitters and would overwhelm any radio on earth, but that signal doesn't get past the ionosphere fortunately for us.
But it also means we can't detect it from the ground. The gist of all that is when newer radio telescopes in space get built, new large ones, they will have a new window on the universe, being able to spot planets around stars in a new way and to use that radiation to figure out how fast the planet rotates and since that radiation also is given off by stars with magnetic fields way larger than our sun, can also be used in a new way for general astronomy. Congratulations to the ESA. Good Job!
This is a major breakthrough in astronomy.
Here is the link to a report if you are interested:
http://www.physorg.com/news133783814.html
The interesting thing AKR the probes revealed is the location and strength of the signal. It comes from a small region of space above the atmosphere which beams into space but blocked by the ionosphere. That turns out to be a good thing, it is 10,000 times stronger than any other kind of signal from terrestrial transmitters and would overwhelm any radio on earth, but that signal doesn't get past the ionosphere fortunately for us.
But it also means we can't detect it from the ground. The gist of all that is when newer radio telescopes in space get built, new large ones, they will have a new window on the universe, being able to spot planets around stars in a new way and to use that radiation to figure out how fast the planet rotates and since that radiation also is given off by stars with magnetic fields way larger than our sun, can also be used in a new way for general astronomy. Congratulations to the ESA. Good Job!
This is a major breakthrough in astronomy.
Here is the link to a report if you are interested:
http://www.physorg.com/news133783814.html