The Parkes Radio Telescope Mystery Signals
The Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, is where you can locate a sizable radio telescope that is notable for relaying signals from the 1969 moon landing. The enigma that local astronomers had been trying to solve for 17 long years was less well known. You see, the telescope would occasionally pick up enigmatic messages. But no one was able to identify their root cause.
A substance known as perytons was being found by the telescope. These astonishingly brief radio transmissions have a terrestrial source. In a testament to how enigmatic they were, they also have a name in common with a mythical creature. The on-site scientists hypothesized that they could be the result of lightning strikes somewhere close to the telescope. That, however, was not the case.
As it turned out, some of the scientists working there would put in full workdays, which meant they occasionally needed to eat. So they heated it in the microwave. The signals were arriving at a frequency of 2.4GHz, which is the same as a microwave.
Someone made the connection that if you open the microwave door just before the cooking cycle is finished, those perytons will briefly be released. As a result, they were pestered for 17 years by individuals reheating their meal.
