Scientists have detected a sound like birdsong in an unexpected part of space, which could be bad news for future space missions. In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers say they detected chorus waves—intense electromagnetic waves that sound like birds chirping—more than 100,000 miles from Earth, three times further out than they have been found before. The waves had previously only been detected in the radiation belts around Earth and other planets. The waves transfer energy to electrons, creating high-speed particles known as "killer electrons," the BBC reports.
The "killer electrons," which move at close to the speed of light, pose a danger to astronauts, spacecraft, and communications systems, Scientific American reports. The new study suggests the danger associated with chorus waves is a lot more widespread than previously thought. "This could be occurring anywhere in the universe where there's a magnetic field, which is just about everywhere," says study co-author James Burch of the Southwest Research Institute. Researchers used data from NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale satellites, which were launched in 2015 to study the magnetic fields around our planet and the sun, reports the AP.
"This is a new source of energetic electrons that we didn't know about that can occur everywhere. So it should be looked for," Burch says. But the findings may not be all bad news for space travel. Richard Horne, a space weather expert at the British Antarctic Survey, says the new findings will help "enhance our understanding of these waves, which will go a long way towards improving our forecasting ability," which could help future space missions avoid danger zones. (More discoveries stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
