We have detected a mysterious and very potent radio signal of a nearby galaxy. And its origin is a complete enigma

In March 2025, an energy pulse as powerful as the one that emits our Sun in several days hit the earth. It lasted just a few milliseconds, but its detection, and above all, the location of its origin, mark a before and after modern astronomy. Now a team from Northwestern University has managed to identify the origin of the fast radio gust (FRB) brighter ever registered. Although there are still many questions to answer. What is a fast radius gust. To understand the magnitude of this finding you must first know what we are talking about. The astronomers themselves describe THE FRB LIKE a cosmic lighthouse of immense power that ignites during a fraction of second In a vast and distant universe. These signals are incredibly energy and travel for millions of light years to reach the earth’s telescopes. Detect one of these bursts It is already an achievement. However, the real challenge is Respond to the origin of these bursts of energy. Until now, the frb that were repeated, which gave scientists multiple opportunities to triangulate the position, had been precisely located. Now they have done it with only one signal. A “photo” with unprecedented precision. The protagonist has been baptized as FRB 20250316A which was detected on March 16, 2025. To achieve this, it is where our current technological capacity enters. Thanks to a telescope network called Chime Outriggerastronomers were able to locate this burst of energy with an amazing accuracy of 13 parsecs, which is equivalent to 42 light years. If we move this measure to the universe itself, we could talk that they have been able to point out a specific house in an entire city seen from space. Something that marks preceding, is that the first time it is achieved for a burst that has apparently been a unique event. An origin that was almost empty. The address from where this signal came to a spiral galaxy called NGC 4141. At that time, all the great telescopes of the world, from the MMT in Arizona to him Keck in HawaiiThey turned to observe that little corner of the universe. Everyone tried to look for some explanation to this event, but what they found did not square them at all. And it is that in the exact place of the outbreak of this signal there is nothing. Not a supermagnnetic neutron star (a Magnetar), Neither a nebula, nor any continuous radio source. A very quiet neighborhood. When looking around the point that scientists had located, you could think that there would be something spectacular. But nothing is further from reality. It was seen that the signal could not come from another close place. Specifically, the formation of stars closest to the localized point is 190 Persecs away. In this way, the origin is located in a really quiet region of the universe. There have been no more repetitions of the event. Despite looking intensely for months, the signal has not reappeared. This is key. Many frb are “repeating”, emitting bursts sporadically. If it were, given its closeness and power, we should have detected weaker pulses. Statistical calculations are clear: the probability that it is a known repeater and we have only seen this bright pulse is very small (with a tension of more than 3.7σ, a very high level of certainty in physics). What could cause this signal. This combination of factors puts the main theories about the origin of FRB. The most accepted hypothesis is that they come from young magnetares, neutron stars with incredibly powerful magnetic fields. These objects are usually born in active star formation regions. The fact that FRB 20250316A is displaced from its “cradle” could mean that the Magnetar He is older of the one that is thought (between 200,000 and 3 million years) and has moved away. However, this clashes with the active life that is presupposed to these objects. The study also rules out other scenarios, such as outbreaks gamma rays Recent The “cleaning” of the environment and the lack of any residual glow in radio or X -rays do not fit with the models of cataclysms such as the Fusion of two neutron starsat least not immediately. The beginning of a new era. Beyond the enigma of the origin of this particular signal, this phenomenon marks a before and after in astrology. The capacity of the Chime/FRB system to locate unique events with this precision The field will revolutionize. It will no longer be necessary to wait for a source to be repeated to be able to study it in detail. Now, astronomers will be able to create a large -scale map of the environments of hundreds of FRB, allowing to compare the unique bursts and those that are repeated every so often. Perhaps in this way we discover that, after all, not all FRB are born from the same type of event. We may be facing two (or more) different phenomena that produce the same type of signal. The universe is plagued by mysteries. From how The stars were formed to him How the ‘big bang’ formedthey still have Many intrigues For our scientists. This makes every time there are more fronts in open -open astronomy And also the hardware field for put our best teams pointing to space with the aim of increasing our knowledge. In Xataka | There is a radio signal arriving at Earth since 1988. The pulsar from which an important mystery is hidden

Volvo has equipped its electric SUV with a very potent lidar. So much that the risk of frying the camera of your mobile is real

Volvo has among its ranks a SUV up to technology, the Ex90. Presented in 2023, it is the electrical alternative to the classic XC90, presuming systems such as the Autonomous Level 3 SAE driving or the equipment of a radar Lidar to detect elements of your environment. What perhaps they had not told you is that, precisely, the lidar sensors of greater capabilities are the archNiene of our usual partner: the smartphone. You can leave you the fried camera. Volvo warns him in his own Support page: Lidar light waves can damage external cameras. The technical explanation is brief, but the message is clear. “Do not point a camera directly when Lidar. Lidar, being a laser -based system, uses infrared light waves that can cause damage to certain camera devices. This can include smartphones or phones equipped with a camera.” Although it sounds like a warning, perhaps something alarming, there are already those who have shown in real time how a lidar can instantly disintegrate the pixels of a mobile sensor. They are not color. They are supposedly fried pixels after burning when aiming at a lidar. The lucky one. In Volvo’s subform in Reddit A video has been viralized in which it can be seen how, when recording the lidar of this electric car, the sensor pixels are gradually burned. Reddit is Reddit and no one can ensure the authenticity of the video, but if we understand the theory behind that a lidar can disintegrate a camera, all the pieces begin to fit perfectly. Your camera sensor. Smartphones use sensors that not only capture visible light (spectrum of 380 to 750 Nm), they are also especially sensitive to near infrared (750 to 1100 nm). In fact, they usually come equipped with an infrared cutting filter in charge of mitigating this light and preventing it from affecting the final result. These filters usually block most infrared light, but they are not perfect. An easy test to do at home is to aim with a TV command to the camera of your mobile. That purple flash that you see is proof that smartphones cameras let infrared light. Destroying pixels. The infrared light emitted by a command has barely power, is emitted in a standard frequency of between 850 and 950 nanometers. What happens to the Lidar del Volvo Ex90? That emits pulsed lasers of 1550 nma wavelength in the middle infrared. This is still invisible to the human eye, but it is a considerable power. If a lidar laser with enough power points directly to a CMOS sensor, it can end up saturating the pixels of it. In other words, it can cause permanent damage and load the pixels that have received their emission of light. A phenomenon studied. Although the Lidar del Volvo Ex90 has put this problem on the table, this is a problem that we have been dragging for more than 20 years. In 2004, studies such as “Lase-Induced Damage Thresholds in Cmos and CCD Sensors ” The destruction of both individual pixels and complete columns after being exposed to compact laser systems was shown. It was highlighted how in wavelengths between 800 and 1,600 Nm (just the latter is the one that caresses Volvo), the damage is irreversible and there is no possible physical defense for infrared protection filters. Lidar in the Volvo Ex90 Volvo is not the only one who warns. Smartphones are not the only devices in using CMOS sensors: the vast majority of consumption miral cameras use this technology. Any manual warnsbefore even starting to explain how the camera works, not directly notice with a laser to the sensor. “When you make Tomas backwards, keep the sun sufficiently far from the viewing angle. Always maintain intense light sources, such as sun, laser or artificial light sources, outside and far from the image area. The concentrated strong light could produce smoke or damage the image sensor or other internal components.” At the moment, Volvo is one of the few companies that, together with Luminar (the company behind its Lidar technology) has detailed the emission of laser pulses in this type of radars. It is expected, however, with the democratization of the Lidar (especially in future cars that will come from China), we have to get used to these power figures. Image | Volvo In Xataka | In the war cameras vs lidar, Tesla has a lot to learn from an unexpected product: the Chinese aspiring robot

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