{"id":126928,"date":"2020-12-05T14:00:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-05T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited\/"},"modified":"2020-12-05T14:00:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T11:00:08","slug":"nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited\/","title":{"rendered":"#Nobody knows why there\u2019s ghostly blobs in the sky \u2014 astronomers are excited"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a23e525e1380\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a23e525e1380\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited\/#Hunting_ORCs\" >Hunting ORCs<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited\/#We_know_what_theyre_not\" >We know what they\u2019re not<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited\/#A_genuine_mystery\" >A genuine mystery<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#Nobody knows why there\u2019s ghostly blobs in the sky \u2014 astronomers are excited<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<div>\n                            In September 2019, my colleague Anna Kapinska gave a presentation showing interesting objects she\u2019d found while browsing our new radio astronomical data. She had started noticing very weird shapes she couldn\u2019t fit easily to any known type of object.<\/p>\n<p>Among them, labeled by Anna as <em>WTF?<\/em>, was a picture of a ghostly circle of radio emission, hanging out in space like a cosmic smoke-ring. None of us had ever seen anything like it before, and we had no idea what it was. A few days later, our colleague Emil Lenc found a second one, even more spooky than Anna\u2019s.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"align-center \">\n<figure class=\"post-image post-mediaBleed aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;rect=0%2C1%2C1260%2C1071&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;fit=clip\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=512&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 600w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=512&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1200w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=600&amp;h=512&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 1800w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=45&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=644&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=1 754w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=30&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=644&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=2 1508w, https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/348544\/original\/file-20200721-37-1tl0rt3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&amp;q=15&amp;auto=format&amp;w=754&amp;h=644&amp;fit=crop&amp;dpr=3 2262w\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"512\"\/><figcaption><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thenextweb.com\/syndication\/2020\/12\/05\/nobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited\/#\" data-url=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fthenextweb.com%2Fsyndication%2F2020%2F12%2F05%2Fnobody-knows-why-theres-ghostly-blobs-in-the-sky-astronomers-are-excited%2F&amp;via=thenextweb&amp;related=thenextweb&amp;text=Check out this picture on: The ghostly ORC1 (blue\/green fuzz), on a backdrop of the galaxies at optical wavelengths. There\u2019s an orange galaxy at the center of the ORC, but we don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s part of the ORC, or just a chance coincidence. Image by B\u00e4rbel Koribalski, based on ASKAP data, with the optical image from the [Dark Energy Survey](https:\/\/www.darkenergysurvey.org), Author provided\" data-title=\"Share The ghostly ORC1 (blue\/green fuzz), on a backdrop of the galaxies at optical wavelengths. There\u2019s an orange galaxy at the center of the ORC, but we don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s part of the ORC, or just a chance coincidence. Image by B\u00e4rbel Koribalski, based on ASKAP data, with the optical image from the [Dark Energy Survey](https:\/\/www.darkenergysurvey.org), Author provided on Twitter\" data-width=\"685\" data-height=\"500\" class=\"post-image-share popitup\" title=\"Share The ghostly ORC1 (blue\/green fuzz), on a backdrop of the galaxies at optical wavelengths. There\u2019s an orange galaxy at the center of the ORC, but we don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s part of the ORC, or just a chance coincidence. Image by B\u00e4rbel Koribalski, based on ASKAP data, with the optical image from the [Dark Energy Survey](https:\/\/www.darkenergysurvey.org), Author provided on Twitter\"><i class=\"icon icon--inline icon--twitter--dark\"\/><\/a>The ghostly ORC1 (blue\/green fuzz), on a backdrop of the galaxies at optical wavelengths. There\u2019s an orange galaxy at the center of the ORC, but we don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s part of the ORC, or just a chance coincidence. Image by B\u00e4rbel Koribalski, based on ASKAP data, with the optical image from the [Dark Energy Survey](https:\/\/www.darkenergysurvey.org), Author provided<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Anna and Emil had been examining the new images from our pilot observations for the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/emu-survey.org\/\">Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU)<\/a> project, made with CSIRO\u2019s revolutionary new <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/the-australian-square-kilometre-array-pathfinder-finally-hits-the-big-data-highway-71217\">Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>EMU plans to boldly probe parts of the Universe where no telescope has gone before. It can do so because ASKAP can survey large swathes of the sky very quickly, probing to a depth previously only reached in tiny areas of sky, and being especially sensitive to faint, diffuse objects like these.<\/p>\n<p>I predicted a <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/expect-the-unexpected-from-the-big-data-boom-in-radio-astronomy-84059\">couple of years ago<\/a> this exploration of the unknown would probably make unexpected discoveries, which I called WTFs. But none of us expected to discover something so unexpected, so quickly. Because of the enormous data volumes, I expected the discoveries would be made using machine learning. But these discoveries were made with good old-fashioned eyeballing.<\/p>\n<p><em>[Read:\u00a0<span dir=\"auto\">How to build a search engine for criminal data<\/span>]<\/em><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Hunting_ORCs\"><\/span>Hunting ORCs<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Our team searched the rest of the data by eye, and we found a few more of the mysterious round blobs. We dubbed them ORCs, which stands for \u201codd radio circles\u201d. But the big question, of course, is: \u201cwhat are they?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At first, we suspected an imaging artefact, perhaps generated by a software error. But we soon confirmed they are real, using other radio telescopes. We still have no idea how big or far away they are. They could be objects in our galaxy, perhaps a few light-years across, or they could be far away in the Universe and maybe millions of light-years across.<\/p>\n<p>When we look in images taken with optical telescopes at the position of ORCs, we see nothing. The rings of radio emission are probably caused by clouds of electrons, but why don\u2019t we see anything in visible wavelengths of light? We don\u2019t know, but finding a puzzle like this is the dream of every astronomer.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"We_know_what_theyre_not\"><\/span>We know what they\u2019re not<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We have ruled out several possibilities for what ORCs might be.<\/p>\n<p>Could they be <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/super-luminous-supernovae-seriously-worth-the-superlatives-10450\">supernova remnants<\/a>, the clouds of debris left behind when a star in our galaxy explodes? No. They are far from most of the stars in the Milky Way and there are too many of them.<\/p>\n<p>Could they be the rings of radio emission sometimes seen in galaxies undergoing intense <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/astronomynow.com\/2018\/07\/18\/glittering-suns-in-a-starburst-ring-stretching-around-the-core-of-messier-94\/\">bursts of star formation<\/a>? Again, no. We don\u2019t see any underlying galaxy that would be hosting the star formation.<\/p>\n<p>Could they be the giant lobes of radio emission we see in <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/experts-solve-the-mystery-of-a-giant-x-shaped-galaxy-with-a-monster-black-hole-as-its-engine-138205\">radio galaxies<\/a>, caused by jets of electrons squirting out from the environs of a supermassive black hole? Not likely, because the ORCs are very distinctly circular, unlike the tangled clouds we see in radio galaxies.<\/p>\n<p>Could they be <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/40255-hubble-telescope-einstein-ring-photo.html\">Einstein rings<\/a>, in which radio waves from a distant galaxy are being bent into a circle by the gravitational field of a cluster of galaxies? Still no. ORCs are too symmetrical, and we don\u2019t see a cluster at their center.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_genuine_mystery\"><\/span>A genuine mystery<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In our <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2006.14805\">paper<\/a> about ORCs, which is forthcoming in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, we run through all the possibilities and conclude these enigmatic blobs don\u2019t look like anything we already know about.<\/p>\n<p>So we need to explore things that might exist but haven\u2019t yet been observed, such as a vast shock wave from some explosion in a distant galaxy. Such explosions may have something to do with <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/how-we-closed-in-on-the-location-of-a-fast-radio-burst-in-a-galaxy-far-far-away-119177\">fast radio bursts<\/a>, or the neutron star and black hole collisions that generate <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/gravitational-waves-discovered-the-universe-has-spoken-54237\">gravitational waves<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps they are something else entirely. Two Russian scientists have even <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2006.15331\">suggested<\/a> ORCs might be the \u201cthroats\u201d of wormholes in spacetime.<\/p>\n<p>From the handful we\u2019ve found so far, we estimate there are about 1,000 ORCs in the sky. My colleague B\u00e4rbel Koribalski notes the search is now on, with telescopes around the world, to find more ORCs and understand their cause.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a tricky job, because ORCS are very faint and difficult to find. Our team is brainstorming all these ideas and more, hoping for the eureka moment when one of us, or perhaps someone else, suddenly has the flash of inspiration that solves the puzzle.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s an exciting time for us. Most astronomical research is aimed at refining our knowledge of the Universe, or testing theories. Very rarely do we get the challenge of stumbling across a new type of object which nobody has seen before, and trying to figure out what it is.<\/p>\n<p>Is it a completely new phenomenon, or something we already know about but viewed in a weird way? And if it really is completely new, how does that change our understanding of the Universe? Watch this space!<!-- Below is The Conversation's page counter tag. Please DO NOT REMOVE. --><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important; text-shadow: none !important;\" alt=\"The Conversation\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" class=\" lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/counter.theconversation.com\/content\/142812\/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><!-- End of code. If you don't see any code above, please get new code from the Advanced tab after you click the republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More info: https:\/\/theconversation.com\/republishing-guidelines --><\/p>\n<p><em>This article by\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/profiles\/ray-norris-20\">Ray Norris<\/a>, Professor, School of <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Science<\/a>, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/institutions\/western-sydney-university-1092\">Western Sydney University<\/a>\u00a0is republished from <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\">The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/wtf-newly-discovered-ghostly-circles-in-the-sky-cant-be-explained-by-current-theories-and-astronomers-are-excited-142812\">original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. 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She had started noticing very weird shapes she couldn\u2019t fit easily to any known type of object. Among them, labeled&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":126929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/img-cdn.tnwcdn.com\/image\/tnw?filter_last=1&fit=1280,640&url=https:\/\/cdn0.tnwcdn.com\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/1\/files\/2020\/12\/1-copy-7.jpg&signature=882a42c7ab8fc857c39c4dcef5c50374","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[71833,82780,5019,73448,67821],"class_list":["post-126928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-astronomer","tag-object-philosophy","tag-space","tag-telescope","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}