We’re getting a mysterious repeating signal from a distant galaxy

Reading time: 2 minutes – detected ScienceAlert

If you are not sentimental astronomy Or astrophysics, you are unlikely to have heard of it before fast radio blasts or FRB (for fast radio blasts). However, these mysterious phenomena deserve special attention: they are types of flashes, or more precisely, bursts of radio waves lasting for a few milliseconds, very intense and above all, emanating from unidentified sources in Universe.

First discovered in 2007 by astronomer Duncan Lorimer, it has been observed dozens of times by radio telescopes around the world.

According to ScienceAlerta New study It may have identified the nature of the FRB source.

This source, first discovered in 2019 and named “FRB 190520B,” regularly spits out fast radio bursts. Astronomers have been able to analyze information about their source in the universe, which suggests that there are several different mechanisms capable of producing these strange waves.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

Most of the time, FRBs come from other galaxies (only one source has been observed in our galaxy, which is Milky Way) and they are extremely bright, releasing as much energy in an instant as 500 million suns.

Also, they are usually only discovered once, which makes tracking and studying them difficult as they are impossible to predict. Only three sources were monitored more than once.

The signals detected in the Milky Way came from a dead star called “magnetic”indicating that at least some of the FRBs are caused by magnetic flares.

Kshitij Aggarwal, astrophysicist at West Virginia Universityasked the following question: Are signals that repeat themselves different from signals that are detected only once?

Since the signal from FRB 190520B repeats itself, observations can be made with a radio telescope Extra large collection of Karl G. Jansky. They reveal interesting features: the source is located on the fringes of a very ancient dwarf galaxy, approximately 4 billion light-years away. Moreover, among the strong signals, much weaker signals were detected, suggesting that the FRBs come from a compact and stable radio source.

If you are a fan of FRBs, you will be familiar with these characteristics: they are similar to those of another frequent sign: FRB 1211102. It was the first source that can be traced to the outskirts of a dwarf galaxy (3 billion light-years away) and is also associated with a compact and stationary source.

So the discovery of FRB 190520B is consistent with the scientists’ hypothesis: that there could be at least two mechanisms responsible for the FRBs. Thus, different impulses can be emitted either by different things, or by the same type of body at different stages of its development.