Mystery roar detected from deep space

[UM-Bot]

Image credit: NASA/ESA/ESO

Space is typically thought of as a very quiet place. But one team of astronomers has found a strange cosmic noise that booms six times louder than expected. The roar is from the distant cosmos. Nobody knows what causes it.

Of course, sound waves can't travel in a vacuum (which is what most of space is), or at least they can't very efficiently. But radio waves can. Radio waves are not sound waves, but they are still electromagnetic waves, situated on the low-frequency end of the light spectrum.

Many objects in the universe, including stars and quasars, emit radio waves. Even our home galaxy, the Milky Way, emits a static hiss (first detected in 1931 by physicist Karl Jansky). Other galaxies also send out a background radio hiss. But the newly detected signal, described here today at the 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, is far louder than astronomers expected.

View: Full Article | Source: Space.com

[newbloodmoon]

Maybe it's God, and (S)he is telling us what a disappointment we are to him/her and we don't have the right equipment to receive it.

[BaneSilvermoon]

We'll probably find out one day that it's reverberation of something we projected into space years ago that somehow made it's way back in our direction heh

[Benz]

i can't see how space would be a quiet place infact i would think the opp with all the stuff that goes on up there

[seekingwhat]

Maybe it's God, and (S)he is telling us what a disappointment we are to him/her and we don't have the right equipment to receive it.

You could think this way, but the article is misleading. All the "Mystery" roar means is that the scientists are wrong about absolutely everything, not that some absolute law has actually been broken, or something new is going on. And we already knew scientists are wrong about everything.

Edited January 11, 2009 by seekingwhat

[lordstanley]

Wow! That is so cool and interesting. Every night before I fall asleep I open the door and step outside and look up into the heavens just to see what out and if anythings new. I have always been amazed at outer space and it always seems that every year something more fasinating happens. I am very excited about this! Thanks UM..LS

[Tropo]

sorry it was just my stomache