Is It Aliens? Radio Signal Of Unknown Origin Spotted By Scientists In Deep Space

While conducting radio continuum observations of a spiral galaxy dubbed NGC 2082, astronomers from Australia stumbled across a strange bright and compact radio source (with designation J054149.24–641813.7).

Representational Image: NASA

To the unaware, radio sources are essentially objects in the universe that release large quantities of radio waves. The strongest emissions are seen with pulsars, nebulas, quasars as well as radio galaxies.?

Researchers from Australia’s Western Sydney University report finding a new radio source and its true nature is still unknown.?

They were observing NGC 2082 -- a G-type spiral galaxy in the Dorado constellation located around 60 million light-years away -- with the help of Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, Australia Telescope Compact Array and Parkes radio telescope when they found a strong point radio source positioned 20 arcseconds from the galaxy centre.?

Researchers explain in their study, "We present radio continuum observations of NGC 2082 using ASKAP, ATCA and Parkes telescopes from 888 MHz to 9,000 MHz. Some 20 arcsec from the centre of this nearby spiral galaxy, we discovered a bright and compact radio source, J054149.24–641813.7, of unknown origin."

The study found that the radio luminosity of J054149.24–641813.7 at 888 MHz was at 129 EW/Hz with a flat radio spectral index of around 0.02. Astronomers claim that this doesn’t favour the scenario that J054149.24–641813.7 could be a supernova remnant (SNR) or a pulsar, while suggesting that the source may be of thermal origin.

They note that its compact nature and location right on the outskirts of NGC 2082 hint that of some fast radio bursts, however, based on the results, they're not bright enough to be a persistent radio source with an in-built FRB progenitor.

Western Sydney University

They conclude by stating that this most likely is an extragalactic background source like a radio galaxy, active galactic nucleus or even a quasi-stellar object. The flat spectral index together with rather a weak polarisation at 5,500 and 9,000 MHz favour this theory. But there don’t exist any high-resolution neutral atomic hydrogen absorption data for NGC 2082 that could confirm this assumption.

They added, "We find that the probability of finding such a source behind NGC 2082 is P = 1.2 percent, and conclude that the most likely origin for J054149.24–641813.7 is a background quasar or radio galaxy."

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