Astronomers probe source of mysterious, powerful radio signal from beyond our galaxy - The Age

JANUARY 12 2018

Astronomers probe source of mysterious, powerful radio signal from beyond our galaxy

Liam Mannix

Fast radio bursts beaming from beyond our galaxy, are astonishingly powerful, and nobody knows what – or who – is making them.

Now an international team of astronomers, including Australian scientists, have made a discovery that could start to unravel the mystery.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/astronomers-probe-source-of-mysterious-powerful-radio-signal-from-beyond-our-galaxy-20180111-h0gx8d

The Arecibo telescope, in Puerto Rico, shown in this artist's impression receiving the fast radio burst.

The Arecibo telescope, in Puerto Rico, shown in this artist's impression receiving the fast radio burst. Photo: Danielle Futselaar

In a cover story published in Nature on Thursday, they report the bursts are coming from one of the most extreme and unusual objects ever seen – possibly a tiny but powerful star trapped in a field of ionised gas that has been spun off by a nebula, or been ejected from a supernova.

"We don't really know what's producing these bursts," says Dr Charlotte Sobey​, an astronomer at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and CSIRO who worked on the discovery. "But they have enormous power. As much energy is released in a single millisecond as the sun releases in a single day."

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/astronomers-probe-source-of-mysterious-powerful-radio-signal-from-beyond-our-galaxy-20180111-h0gx8d

The Green Bank telescope in West Virginia also received a flash from FRB 121102. The flash was extremely 'twisted'.

The Green Bank telescope in West Virginia also received a flash from FRB 121102. The flash was extremely 'twisted'. Photo: Image design ? Danielle Futselaar; Photo usage ? Shutterstock.com

FRBs, as they are known, have fascinated astronomers since they were discovered in the archive data of NSW's Parkes radio telescope in 2007.

Enormously powerful bursts of radio waves that last for milliseconds, they have defied explanation for years – leading some to suggest they are the communications of some distant alien civilisation.

The team that made the discovery have been studying FRB 121102, an FRB source unique because its signal keeps repeating over and over.

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They called in Dr Sobey, an expert in the rotation of light, when they noticed the signal had a unique attribute: extreme polarisation.

Polarised light is light that vibrates in only one direction. Light from the sun is unpolarised – its electric charges vibrate in multiple directions. Polarised glasses let in light that vibrates in only one direction, which is why they make things darker.

Dr Sobey immediately saw the light she had been asked to look at was very unusual. It was extremely polarised, about as polarised as any radio source can be.

More unusually, the light had been "twisted", she says, hitting the Earth like a corkscrew. This is usually caused by light moving through an extremely strong magnetic field generated by a field of dense ionised gas, known as plasma.

Dr Sobey realised she was looking at an "extreme object".

As much energy is released in a single millisecond as the sun releases in a single day.

The FRB's polarisation points to one of two sources.

Most likely, the bursts are being generated by a tiny but energetic star that has become trapped within the dense plasma cloud of a powerful nebula. The star's polarised light is being twisted by the surrounding plasma before it reaches us.

That, or the star is trapped near a super-massive black hole, which could produce similar effects.

While the mystery is far from solved, Dr Sobey believes the evidence is now firmly stacked against FRBs being generated by alien life.

"I personally don't think it could be aliens. We have seen these FRBs come from lots of different directions in the sky, and we think it's very unlikely there are many different civilisations spread throughout this range in the universe that would all communicate using the same kind of technique.

"It also needs a lot of power to generate these type of signals, so we think it must be of astrophysical origin."

Abuse isn't romantic. So why the panic that feminists are killing eros? - Guardian

Abuse isn't romantic. So why the panic that feminists are killing eros?

Jessica Valenti

Catherine Deneuve and others have publicly worried that the campaign to end sexual harassment has gone too far but the truth is there is no war on romance

‘Trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not [a crime],’ Catherine Deneuve’s letter read.

‘Trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not [a crime],’ Catherine Deneuve’s letter read. Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

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@JessicaValenti

Fri 12 Jan 2018 22.22 AEDT Last modified on Sat 13 Jan 2018 02.34 AEDT

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The metoo backlash is here, and it’s very worried about your love life.

Iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve says the movement is puritanical and men should be able to “hit on women”. New York Times writer Daphne Merkin wants to know “whatever happened to flirting?” The Hollywood Reporter bemoans that #MeToo could “kill sexy Hollywood movies” while Cathy Young at the Los Angeles Times believes it will end office romance. Ross Douthat is even worried that the push to end sexual harassment could stunt population growth.

Who knew that humankind’s very existence depended on women’s silence in the face of abuse?

The truth, of course, is that there’s no war on romance: the majority of outed abusers are being accused of rape, serial harassment and exposing their genitals to unwilling women. Not exactly the stuff of office flirtation.

We created the movement. Now it's time for Hertoo

Still, somehow we’ve reached a point where any behavior short of violent predation – let’s call it the “not as bad as Weinstein” standard – is characterized as misunderstood seduction.

Merkin says, “stripping sex of eros isn’t the solution”. But whose “eros” are we really worried about? As Vox journalist Laura McGann put it this week at a media event, “I don’t see this uprising of 22-year-old women saying, ‘I want the right to sleep with my boss.’”

As has been the case for so long, the backlash to #MeToo is about what men want and protecting their right to have it.

If it wasn’t, we’d see a spate of panicked articles about teenage girls being arrested and charged with distributing child abuse images after sending nude photos to their boyfriends. Unlike the men outed by Metoo none of whom have been held to real account, these young people are actually being criminalized for consensual romantic behavior. Where is the open letter on their behalf?

There’s a reason so many people are conflating bad and sometimes criminal behavior with romance: traditional ideas about seduction rely on tropes of women witholding sex and men working hard to get it. It’s a narrow notion of heterosexuality – one that does a good job excusing abusive behavior.

“Trying to seduce someone, even persistently or cack-handedly, is not [a crime],” Deneuve’s letter read. Not always, that’s true. But when it’s considered “natural” for men to doggedly pursue women – even those who have made it clear they’re not interested – we make it easier for a predator to claim he was just following a normal romantic script.

Perhaps instead of mourning the loss of office “flirtations”, we should consider the idea that some women never liked them much to begin with.

When will we have more concern for the women hurt by abuse than the men accused of it? One of Roy Moore’s accusers had her house burnt to the ground – arson is suspected. Harper’s magazine was on the brink of publishing the name of a woman who created the Shitty Media Men list before a feminist Twitter campaign stopped it. Some women won’t see justice for years, some ever.

This moment isn’t about romance, it’s about abuse. Perhaps the fact that so many people can’t tell the difference is part of the problem.

Jessica Valenti is a Guardian columnist