新的射电望远镜系统检测到快速收音机的爆发速度比以往任何时候都快

研究人员成功测试了一项新技术，该技术比以往任何时候都更快地检测到夜空中快速的无线电爆发，从而发现了一大批数据，以帮助天文学家研究这些神秘的太空现象的来源。

Astronomers have successfully tested a new technology that can detect fast radio bursts in the night sky faster than ever before, uncovering a treasure trove of data to help investigate the source of these mysterious space phenomena.

天文学家已经成功测试了一项新技术，该技术可以比以往任何时候都更快地检测到夜空中快速的无线电爆发，从而发现了一群数据，以帮助研究这些神秘的太空现象的来源。

Developed by astronomers and engineers at Australia's national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), the new system — known as the Commensal Realtime ASKAP Fast Transient Coherent, or CRACO — was designed to rapidly detect fast radio bursts (FRBs) and other transient phenomena using CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope in Western Australia.

由澳大利亚国家科学局，英联邦科学和工业研究组织（CSIRO）的天文学家和工程师开发，新系统（称为Comensal实时ASKAP ASKAP快速瞬态相干或CRACO）旨在快速检测快速无线电爆发（FRBS）以及使用CSIRO的ASKAP射电望远镜的其他短暂现象。

FRBs are sporadic, intense flashes of radio wave energy that can be brighter than entire galaxies. In just thousandths of a second, an FRB can emit as much energy as the sun does over three days, typically at a radio frequency of about 1,400 hertz. Given their unpredictable nature as well as how fast they can come and go, gathering data on FRBs can be difficult, making them one of astronomy's more exciting mysteries.

FRB是零星，强烈的无线电波闪烁，比整个星系都更明亮。在仅千分之一秒的时间里，FRB可以发出与太阳在三天内尽可能多的能量，通常以约1,400赫兹的射频。鉴于他们不可预测的本性以及他们可以走的速度，因此很难收集FRB的数据，这使它们成为天文学更令人兴奋的谜团之一。

This data gap is what a team, led by Andy Wang from Curtin University's node of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), set out to solve. Remarkably, in the system's first test, Wang found more objects than he'd anticipated, including two FRBs, a couple of sporadically emitting standard neutron stars, and better data for four known pulsars. The latter helped refine the locations of these pulsars, which are spinning neutron stars. Since that first test, additional searches have found more than 20 FRBs.

这个数据差距是由科廷大学国际射电天文学研究中心（ICRAR）节点的安迪·王（Andy Wang）领导的团队，开始解决。值得注意的是，在系统的第一次测试中，王发现的物体比他预期的要多，其中包括两个FRB，几个偶发地发射标准的中子星，以及四个已知脉冲星的更好数据。后者有助于完善这些脉冲星的位置，这些脉冲星是旋转中子星的。自第一次测试以来，其他搜索发现了20多个FRB。

"We were focused on finding fast radio bursts, a mysterious phenomenon that has opened up a new field of research in astronomy," Dr. Wang said in an ICRAR statement. "CRACO is enabling us to find these bursts better than ever before. We have been searching for bursts 100 times per second and in the future we expect this will increase to 1,000 times per second."

王博士在《 ICRAR声明》中说：“我们专注于寻找快速无线电爆发，这是一种神秘的现象，为天文学开辟了新的研究领域。” “ Craco使我们能够比以往任何时候都更好地发现这些爆发。我们一直在寻找每秒100次爆发，将来我们希望这将增加到每秒1000次。”

Sifting through sand in the sky

在天空中的沙子筛

Keith Bannister, a CSIRO astronomer and engineer who led the team that built CRACO, likened its capabilities to "sifting through a whole beach of sand to look for a single five-cent coin every minute." The system processes about 100 billion pixels per second, scanning ASKAP's "live" view of the sky in search of fleeting cosmic signals.

CSIRO天文学家和工程师Keith Bannister领导了建造Craco的团队，他的能力将“在整个沙滩上筛选，每分钟寻找一个五美分的硬币”。该系统每秒处理约1000亿像素，扫描Askap的“现场”景观，以寻找短暂的宇宙信号。

Located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country, the ASKAP radio telescope is already a major radio astronomy facility for international scientists, so CRACO's integration into ASKAP is expected to broaden the observatory's scientific impact worldwide.

ASKAP射电望远镜位于Wajarri Yamaji国家的Csiro Murchison Rady-Astronomy天文台，位于Inyarrimanha Ilgari Budgari Bundara，Askap射电望远镜已经成为国际科学家的主要射电天文学设施，因此，Craco在ASKAP中的整合将范围扩大了观察者的科学影响。

"Once at full capacity, CRACO will be a game changer for international astronomy," Wang said. "We're also detecting long-period transients, which remain mysterious objects within our galaxy. Both fast radio bursts and these transients were first discovered in Australia, so it is great that we’re continuing the path of discovery with this impressive technology."

王说：“克拉科（Craco）一旦满足，将成为国际天文学的游戏规则改变者。” “我们还检测到长期的瞬态，这些瞬变仍然是我们银河系中神秘的物体。快速无线电爆发和这些瞬态首次在澳大利亚发现，因此我们以这种令人印象深刻的技术继续发现发现的道路真是太好了。 “

As part of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility, CRACO will soon be available to astronomers around the globe, enabling rapid identification of transient celestial signals and paving the way for further discoveries in the cosmos.

作为CSIRO澳大利亚望远镜国家设施的一部分，Craco将很快向全球的天文学家提供，从而可以快速识别短暂的天体信号，并为宇宙中进一步的发现铺平了道路。

The first batch of findings was published this week in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

第一批发现本周在澳大利亚天文学会的出版物上发表。