Medical discovery dominated the news in 2020, but astronomers continued their work even in epidemic conditions. They hunted through radio waves for mystery signals, discovered new galaxies and even discovered that alien star systems were able to detect Earth.
Radio emissions from an alien world
The planets in the solar system emit radio waves, especially Jupiter with its intense magnetic fields. Researchers taking signals from the gas giant of the Tau Boatz system, just one light-year from Earth, have so far found no radio waves coming from an extraterrestrial planet. That signal will help them to learn more about the magnetic field of that exoplanet, which can give an indication of what is going on in its atmosphere.
X-ray blobs erupting from the galaxy
Millions of years ago, an explosion at the center of the galaxy caused material to rise above and below the galactic disk. That material is still visible, shining in the gamma ray spectrum in two clamps found in 2010, known as Fermi bubbles. In 2020, researchers found another pair of blobs in the same field, visible in the X-ray spectrum. Probably related to the Fermi bubble, the final and uninterrupted features of the galaxy’s 25,000-light-year Fermi bubbles, lasting up to 45,000 light-years. Researchers named them “erosita bubbles.”
The long-lost rocket booster
In 2020, Earth acquired a new “minimun”, one of the many objects encountered in space from time to time on Earth that ends up in orbit around our planet. But a close investigation by amateur and professional space observers revealed that the minimum was not a natural thing, but a rocket booster launched by NASA in the 1960s.
Haunted radio circles
Scientists often find objects in space that fade, but new odd radio circles (ORCs) discovered in 2019 and reported in 2020 are special. Round blobs, visible in radio telescope data, do not look like any known like object. They are not supernova remnants, or optical effects called Einstein rings. Some scientists have also suggested that they may be deworming throat. But no one really knows what these newly discovered things are.
One million new galaxies
The Australian Australian Outback includes the 83% observable universe during 83 hours of observation in a radio telescope. And it turned out a huge amount of data: 3 million galaxies, a whole million, never seen before. The Australian Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) relies on an 36 antenna to record the sky, but this is the first time all 36 have been used simultaneously for the same project.
A sign of life on Venus?
Venus may be the most hospitable place in the solar system, with swaying acid clouds and hellish temperatures. That’s why astronomers are getting ready to see phosphin, a foul-smelling gas believed to be a potential sign of life on alien planets, they first trained their phosphin-hunting telescope on Venus: they wanted a reference image of a certain dead world. But in a shocking turn, they found the compound in the clouds of Venus.
Other researchers have urged caution before suggesting that there is real life on Venus.
A newborn magnet
Nov. On the 12th, researchers discovered a bright kilonova, a light show after a neutron and two stars merged. Kilonovas are rarely found in space, but researchers have seen them before. This was special though: strange signs in the Kilonova light signaled the presence of something new. Researchers studying the phenomenon offered some possibilities, but said it was mostly a newborn magnet: a giant, super-magnetic neutron star that formed during a collision.
The source of the fast radio exploded
Magnets can also be responsible for the brightness of light in space. These “fast radio firsts” have had hidden astronomers for years, packing energy from the sun into the day in just milliseconds. Most seem to be coming away from the Milky Way galaxy, but in 2020 researchers reported an FRB arising in our home galaxy, just 30,000 light-years from Earth. And the origin of this one was a well-known point: a magnet. Does this mean that all such explosions come through magnets? No one is sure.
Aliens that can see us
Astronomers look for alien planets as they pass between Earth and their stars. One day they can study their atmosphere by seeing how the starlight shines through them. But it only works for orbiting planets that arrange them between Earth and the stars in their home. Planets that are not connected in that way are largely invisible to current telescope technology.
In 2020, researchers asked which star systems on Earth have favorable points that make our small atmosphere vibrate with signs of life. They identified 1,600 star systems capable of seeing the Earth in 326 light years. Exoplanet, a star just 12 light-years from Earth, is known and will be a perfect point to look at when it comes into position in 2044.
Published on Original Living Science.
