REAL LIFE NEWS: MICROWAVE OVEN FOOLS ASTRONOMERS
by Hazed
Astronomers at an Australian radio telescope have been monitoring a strange set of signals for the past 17 years, which they thought were coming from another galaxy. But it turns out their origin was much closer – they were caused by the microwave oven in the kitchen.
The signals were first detected in 1998 at the Parkes telescope. They were similar in frequency and duration to the kind of fast radio bursts which are believed to come from another galaxy. An unusual feature of the signals (which are known as perytons) was that they could only be detected during business hours. (You’d think that might have rung some alarm bells, but apparently not.)
A PhD student, Emily Petroff, decided to study the perytons. She set up an interference monitor at the site, and shortly afterwards the monitor detected three short signal bursts. The signals were received by the telescope, but the monitor’s data indicated a source similar to a microwave oven. So she and a team of scientists examined the microwave in the facility’s kitchen. They discovered that if it was opened while it was in use, it generated a burst of radio waves that triggered the telescope.
The signals were not from another galaxy – they came from impatient astronomers opening the microwave door prematurely! And it only took 17 years to figure it out.
