Ripples in Earth’s atmosphere make distant galaxies appear to flash

By Leah Crane

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Distant galaxies appear to be flashing – but this is actually an optical illusion caused by changes in Earth’s atmosphere that could be both a blessing and a curse for astronomers.

Mark Kuiack at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands and his colleagues were using the Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transient Facility And Analysis Center to search for flares of radio light from distant objects throughout the universe, but they found something a little closer to home. Sometimes, a known source of radio light, like a galaxy, would unexpectedly flash up to 100 times brighter …