Astronomers have for the first time recorded how ionized gas clouds in interstellar space distort radio signals coming from a distant quasar. Signals from the object TXS 2005+403, traveling 10 billion light-years to Earth, pass through the complex structures of the Milky Way. This is reported by Ixbt.com reports .
As the signal passes through the Cygnus constellation, the medium of ionized gas and electrons creates turbulent irregularities that deflect radio signals. While such phenomena were previously only indirectly inferred, it is now possible to directly measure their structure.
A team led by Alexander Plavin from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian analyzed a decade of observation data obtained using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) radio telescope network. Researchers identified not just signal scattering, but stable and repeating distortions.
Observations showed that the signal retained its specific structure even on the longest baselines of the interferometer. This proves that the observed effects are not related to the properties of the quasar, but to stable turbulence in the interstellar medium.
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