These phenomena were at one time speculated to be artificial because similar signals called perytons were shown to be caused by a microwave. For 10 points each:
[10h] Name these phenomena whose distribution can be analyzed by plotting them on graphs of fluence versus dispersion measure. Many of them have been observed with the CHIME (“chime”) telescope.
ANSWER: fast radio bursts [or FRBs] (Perytons are named after the mythological creature from Jorge Luis Borges’s Book of Imaginary Beings.)
[10m] A crude rule of thumb calculates this quantity for a fast radio burst by dividing its dispersion measure by 1,000. Surveys of this quantity, such as the one carried out by the SDSS, measure it to map the large-scale structures of galaxies.
ANSWER: redshift [accept cosmological redshift or photometric redshift; reject “Doppler redshift” or “Doppler shift” or “blueshift”]
[10e] The first fast radio burst was detected in a survey of these objects that were discovered by Jocelyn Bell Burnell. They are neutron stars that emit radio waves at regular periods.
ANSWER: pulsars [accept pulsating radio sources]
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