MYSTERIOUS NOISES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 5

MYSTERIOUS NOISES

RADIATIONS FROM SPACE 1 STUDY IN DOMINION BY AUSTRALIANS N.Z.P.A.—Copyright SYDNEY, May 24. The Government , astronomer, Mr H. W. Wood, said th’at the radiatiqns from space which Australian scientists will study in North Auckland may have come from the Milky Way. The radiations have been heard on ultra short-wave radio receivers during the past two years. A group of scientists from the radio physics laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research will leave’ shortly for New Zealand to attempt to fix the position from which the radiations come. Mr Wood said the radiations appeared to emanate from the constellation Cygnus. “At present we have no idea of how the noises are caused,” he added. “We know they are not radio interference, because they come from the outside atmosphere and from a fixed position in space. Some scientists think the noises come from a large area in space, but scientists in the radio physics laboratory think they come from a very small area or possibly from a single star. Australian scientists are probably nearer to determining the exact source of the radiations than any other group of scientists in the world." It was reported on Saturday that the party would be conducting investigations into mysterious "noises” being radiated to the earth from regions inimitably beyond the sun at Leigh, 58 miles north of Auckland. Leigh has research advantages over the Sydney headlands, where research has previously been carried out, but where the necessary accuracy could not be attained. Leigh gives a northerly aspect from slightly raised "ground, which affords an unimpeded view of the sea. From here a clear interference pattern may be obtained of direct radiation to the earth, and radiation reflected by the sea.