Radio

New Breakthrough Lets Scientists Track Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts in Real-Time

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Located in the Okanagan Valley outside of Penticton, British Columbia, there is a massive radio observatory dedicated to observing cosmic radio phenomena. It’s called the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), a cylindrical parabolic radio telescope that looks like what snowboarders would call a “half-pipe”. This array is part of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory … Read more

The Tiny Dots in This Image Aren’t Stars or Galaxies. They’re Black Holes

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The image above may look like a fairly normal picture of the night sky, but what you’re looking at is a lot more special than just glittering stars. Each of those white dots is an active supermassive black hole.   And each of those black holes is devouring material at the heart of a galaxy … Read more

Do Auroras Make Sounds We Can Hear? The True Answer Is Surprisingly Complicated

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It’s a question that has puzzled observers for centuries: do the fantastic green and crimson light displays of the aurora borealis produce any discernible sound? Conjured by the interaction of solar particles with gas molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, the aurora generally occurs near Earth’s poles, where the magnetic field is strongest. Reports of the aurora … Read more

Watching for Extreme Weather? Try a Radio

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When you live in Tornado Alley, you get used to the school drills, the periodic testing of the sirens, and storms that knock over trees and flood roadways. A face you know above all others is the broadcast meteorologist, who tells you routinely about tornado watches, and occasionally tornado warnings. When tornadoes materialize, this feature … Read more