Mysterious Radio Pulses Above Antarctica Baffle Scientists

Scientists have detected a burst of strange radio signals from the ice of Antarctica that defy explanation. The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) experiment picked up the anomalies, which were oriented at very steep angles and passed through thousands of miles of rock before reaching the instrument.

The signals are not consistent with neutrinos, which are known as “ghost particles” due to their ability to phase through matter and remain unchanged. Neutrinos are difficult to detect because they don’t interact with other particles, making them a challenging target for scientists.

ANITA team member Stephanie Wissel said that the anomalies are an interesting problem, but the team still doesn’t have an explanation for what they are. The signals could be indicative of something new, such as dark matter, which accounts for around 85% of the universe’s matter content.

The research was published online in March in the journal Physical Review Letters. A larger and more sensitive instrument called Payload for Ultrahigh Energy Observations (PUEO) is currently being developed by Penn State to help scientists understand these anomalies.

While the team hasn’t found any explanation yet, Wissel remains excited about the possibility of detecting more anomalies with PUEO. The discovery has sparked further interest in neutrino detection and the search for dark matter, a mysterious cosmic substance that continues to intrigue scientists.

Source: https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/mysterious-radio-pulses-detected-high-above-antarctica-may-be-evidence-of-an-exotic-new-particle-scientists-say