天文学家设计AI，来更好地探测神秘的太空信号

天文学家设计AI，来更好地探测神秘的太空信号

Scientists are using AI to solve the mystery of the radio waves from deepest space which keep slamming into telescopes on Earth.

科学家们正在利用AI来破解来自太空深处无线电波的奥秘，这些无线电波不断地撞击地球上的望远镜。

The sudden and baffling flashes are known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and until now have been virtually impossible to spot and trace.

这种突然而令人困惑的闪光被称为快速无线电爆炸(FRB)，到目前为止几乎不可能被发现和跟踪。

They are intense pulses of radio waves that last no longer than the blink of an eye and come from far beyond our Milky Way galaxy.

它们是强烈的无线电波脉冲，持续时间不超过一眨眼的时间，来自我们银河系之外的遥远地方。

NRAO Outreach/T. Jarrett (IPAC/Caltech); B. Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF)

No one knows what causes the strange bursts, but theories range from highly magnetized neutron stars and supermassive black holes to signs of an advanced civilization.

没有人知道是什么导致了这种奇怪的爆发，但是理论上，从强磁化的中子星和超大质量黑洞到先进文明的标志都有可能。

Now astronomers are using artificial intelligence to pinpoint the source of the pulses, in the hope of explaining who or what is sending them to Earth.

现在天文学家正利用AI来精确定位脉冲的来源，以期解释是谁或是什么将脉冲发送到地球上。

Now Wael Farah, a doctoral student at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, developed a machine-learning system that recognized the signatures of FRBs as they arrive.

现在，WaelFarah，澳大利亚墨尔本斯温伯恩理工大学的博士生，开发了一种机器学习系统，可以识别FRBs到达时的签名。

Farah’s system trained the Molonglo telescope in Canberra to spot FRBs and switch over to its most detailed recording mode, producing the finest records of FRBs yet.

法拉的系统训练堪培拉的莫龙格罗望远镜识别出FRB，并切换到最详细的记录模式，产生了迄今为止最好的FRB记录。

“It is fascinating to discover that a signal that traveled halfway through the universe,” he said. The research was recently published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

他说:“发现一种信号穿越了半个宇宙，这很令人着迷。”这项研究最近发表在《皇家天文学会月刊》上。

Many of the intense flashes have traveled billions of light-years across space.

许多强烈的闪光在太空中传播了数十亿光年。

Some scientists have suggested that the bursts could be from rapidly rotating neuron stars but others think they are messages from aliens.

一些科学家认为这些爆发可能来自快速旋转的神经元恒星，但其他人认为它们是来自外星人的信息。

They have complex, mysterious structures, patterns of peaks and valleys in radio waves that play out in just milliseconds, reports Space.com.

据Space.com报道，它们有复杂而神秘的结构，无线电波中的波峰和波谷模式，在短短几毫秒内就能显现出来。

That’s not the sort of signal astronomers expect to come from a simple explosion, or any other events known to scatter spikes of electromagnetic energy across space.

这不是天文学家们所期望的来自简单爆炸的信号，也不是任何已知的在太空中散射电磁能量的信号。

Ever since the first one was uncovered in 2007, using data recorded in 2001, there’s been an ongoing effort to pin down their source.

自从2007年第一个发现以来，利用2001年记录的数据，人们一直在努力查明它们的来源。

But FRBs arrive at random times and places and existing human technology and observation methods aren’t well-primed to spot these signals.

但FRB到达的时间和地点都是随机的，现有的人类技术和观测方法，还不能很好地发现这些信号。

In January, we told how astronomers discovered a set of mysterious radio signals that could have been sent to Earth by a distant alien race.

今年1月，我们讲述了天文学家如何发现一组神秘的无线电信号，这些信号可能是由一个遥远的外星种族发送到地球的。

The repeating Fast Radio Burst, only the second ever found, was fired from a spot 1.5 billion light-years from our planet – and experts are baffled as to what created it.

这是迄今为止发现的第二次重复的快速射电暴，它是从距离地球15亿光年的地方发射的——专家们对它的成因感到困惑。