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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2019 January 10

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January 10[edit]

Could someone please explain to me how this newly detected FRB is different from the Wow! signal? And also why FRB 180814.J0422+73 and FRB 121102 are so special? I'm just not getting it. Thanks, †dismas†|(talk) 02:44, 10 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Before these were noticed the FRBs just seems to come from random places in the sky. The source of FRBs is unknown. FRB's may have been created in the destruction of an object. However if there are repeats, then the source must keep on existing, and can also be localised accurately so that the FRB source might be observed using other technologies. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:50, 10 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Difference to the WOW signal, is that the WOW was narrowband, less than 10kHz wide. FRBs are hundreds of megahertz wide. The WOW signal lasted at least 72 seconds, but a FRB only lasts a few milliseconds, though it is a bit dispersed, so that it sweeps over the full frequency band quickly. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 10:07, 10 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]
The WOW signal lasted for at least 72 seconds, right - the detector was moving with the Earth's rotation, so most likely it was going on before and after it was in the field of view of the detector. Bubba73 You talkin' to me? 07:24, 14 January 2019 (UTC)[reply]