14 DAY TRIAL // When the CSIRO Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, started picking up some seriously bizarre signals, scientists assumed that they were coming from deep space.
Thus, they believed them to be signals reaching our planet from galaxies far, far away. As it turns out, this wasn't the case. Au contraire, the signals had a perfectly mundane source.
The signals were the work of a kitchen microwave oven
Rather than the voice of a distant alien civilization desperately trying to communicate with us, the signals were found to be the work of a run-of-the-mill kitchen microwave oven used by Parkes telescope researchers to heat their meals.
As explained by specialist Emily Petroff, the odd signals, described as fast radio bursts, were produced whenever somebody was too hungry and opened the microwave oven without waiting for the designated heating time to be over.
“Radio emission escaping from microwave ovens during the magnetron shut-down phase neatly explain all of the observed properties of the peryton signals,” scientist Emily Petroff and fellow researchers said in a statement, as cited by DPA.
Since many of the specialists working at this research facility in New South Wales were in the habit of opening the door of the microwave oven mid-heating process, the Parkes telescope kept recording one bizarre radio burst after another.
“We were surprised how many people open the microwave door without switching it off first, even scientists,” researcher John Sarkissian told the press in an interview.
The microwave oven was banished from the facility's kitchen
Since scientific research trumps hot soup, specialists at the Parkes telescope agreed that, to avoid future conundrums, it would be best to banish the microwave oven responsible for this incident from the facility's kitchen.
As for other electronic equipment such as computers, the scientists reassure that they are kept in special rooms and, therefore, cannot interfere with the telescope's working agenda.
