radio astronomy Radio astronomy is a subfield of astronomy that studies celestial objects at radio frequencies. The first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object was in 1933, when Karl Jansky at Bell Telephone Laboratories reported radiation coming f ...

, perytons are short man-made radio signals of a few milliseconds resembling

fast radio bursts In radio astronomy, a fast radio burst (FRB) is a transient Radio wave, radio pulse of length ranging from a fraction of a millisecond to 3 seconds, caused by some high-energy astrophysical process not yet understood. Astronomers estimate the ave ...

. First detected at the

Parkes Observatory Parkes Observatory is a radio astronomy observatory, located north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia. It hosts Murriyang, the 64 m CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope also known as "The Dish", along with two smaller radio telescopes. T ...

in 1998, they were found to be caused by premature opening of a

microwave oven A microwave oven (commonly referred to as a microwave) is an electric oven that heats and cooks food by exposing it to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave frequency range. This induces polar molecules in the food to rotate and produce t ...

door nearby. The radio signals are named after the peryton, a pseudo-mythical winged stag that casts the shadow of a man. This name was chosen for these signals because they are man-made but have characteristics that mimick the natural phenomenon of

fast radio burst In radio astronomy, a fast radio burst (FRB) is a transient radio pulse of length ranging from a fraction of a millisecond to 3 seconds, caused by some high-energy astrophysical process not yet understood. Astronomers estimate the average FRB rel ...

Detection

Perytons were observed at the

and Bleien Radio Observatory. Between 1998 and 2015, 46 perytons were identified at the

. On June 23, 1998, 16 perytons were detected at that same location within 7 minutes. In 2011, a group of researchers from

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

identified 16 signals resembling man-made

and gave them the name peryton. A peryton is a fictional animal from the

Book of Imaginary Beings The ''Book of Imaginary Beings'' was written by Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerrero and published in 1957 under the original Spanish title ''Manual de zoología fantástica''. The subsequent English version contains descriptions of 120 myt ...

, by

Jorge Luis Borges Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known bo ...

. In January 2015, 3 perytons were detected at the

. As of 2015, 25 perytons had been the subject of scientific publications.

Origin hypotheses

These signals mimic some aspects of

s (FRB) that appear to be coming from outside the Milky Way galaxy, but their astronomical origin was soon excluded. Hypothesized potential sources of perytons included: * Signals from aircraft * Flashes in the

ionosphere The ionosphere () is the ionized part of the upper atmosphere of Earth, from about to above sea level, a region that includes the thermosphere and parts of the mesosphere and exosphere. The ionosphere is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an ...

* Lightning *

Solar flare A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other solar phe ...

s * Terrestrial gamma-ray bursts * Narrow bipolar pulse (electrical discharges between clouds at high altitude with a capacity of several hundred

gigawatts The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Watt ...

)

Identification of origin

On March 17, 2015, 3 perytons were produced by experimentation by putting ceramic mugs filled with water in a microwave oven and opening the door before it was done. In 2015, perytons were found to be the result of premature opening of

doors at the Parkes Observatory. The microwave oven releases a frequency-swept radio pulse that mimics a

as the

magnetron The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and currently in microwave ovens and linear particle accelerators. It generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field while ...

turns off. Two Matsushita microwave ovens were deemed responsible for most of the perytons. Both were functional and over 27 years old.

References

External links

What is a peryton?
at Physics

Stack Exchange Stack Exchange is a network of question-and-answer (Q&A) websites on topics in diverse fields, each site covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. The reputation system allows th ...

Detection

Origin hypotheses

Identification of origin

References

External links

See also