The strange behavior of FRBs is that they appear to be point sources -- only some of the "pixels" in the Parkes detectors are saturated when they are detected. It seems (at least to me) very unlikely that something which looks like a point source would be emitted from the local area. The way signals are reflected off the dish[+] would mean that any local source would almost certainly saturate all the "pixels" (as was the case with "perytons").
It could possibly be an atmospheric effect, but even then I think that might still be too close (and thus too large of an angular diameter) to the detector to only saturate one or two "pixels" rather.
[+]: The detector is in the stalk that is above the dish, and signals are reflected off the dish and converge at the focus which is where the detector is placed. So any local source is likely to envelop the entire detector unless it is directly underneath the dish and is a very angle-sensitive effect.
A bit of trivia: "the support that holds the receiver above an antenna's reflector" doesn't seem to have a word in the English language. At least one couldn't be found when it was discussed on the Sydney Wireless mailing list 15 years ago. Is anyone aware of such a word?
At the time I proposed "yongcat", but it doesn't see to have caught on as it draws a blank on all search engines!
Comments
The strange behavior of FRBs is that they appear to be point sources -- only some of the "pixels" in the Parkes detectors are saturated when they are detected. It seems (at least to me) very unlikely that something which looks like a point source would be emitted from the local area. The way signals are reflected off the dish[+] would mean that any local source would almost certainly saturate all the "pixels" (as was the case with "perytons").
It could possibly be an atmospheric effect, but even then I think that might still be too close (and thus too large of an angular diameter) to the detector to only saturate one or two "pixels" rather.
[+]: The detector is in the stalk that is above the dish, and signals are reflected off the dish and converge at the focus which is where the detector is placed. So any local source is likely to envelop the entire detector unless it is directly underneath the dish and is a very angle-sensitive effect.
A bit of trivia: "the support that holds the receiver above an antenna's reflector" doesn't seem to have a word in the English language. At least one couldn't be found when it was discussed on the Sydney Wireless mailing list 15 years ago. Is anyone aware of such a word?
At the time I proposed "yongcat", but it doesn't see to have caught on as it draws a blank on all search engines!