Mysterious radio signal is coming from inside our galaxy

Comments · 640 Views

scientists announce
Mysterious, intense blasts of radio energy have been detected from within our own galaxy, astronomers have said.

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, last only a fraction of a second but can be 100 million times more powerful than the Sun. Despite their intensity, their origin remains largely unknown.

Now astronomers have been able to observe a fast radio burst in our own Milky Way, for the first ever time. As well as being closer than any FRB ever detected before, they could finally help solve the mystery of where they come from.

Scientists have had trouble tracking down the origin of such blasts because they are so short, unpredictable and originate far away. It is clear that they must be formed in some of the most extreme conditions possible in the universe, with suggested explanations including everything from dying stars to alien technology.

 

The bursts of radio energy appear to have come from a magnetar, or a star with a very powerful magnetic field, the scientists who discovered the new FRBs said. They were able to confirm that the blast would look like the other, more distant FRBs if it was observed from outside of our own galaxy – suggesting that at least some of the other blasts could be formed by similar objects elsewhere, too.

“There’s this great mystery as to what would produce these great outbursts of energy, which until now we’ve seen coming from halfway across the universe,” said Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT, who led the team’s analysis of the FRB’s brightness. “This is the first time we’ve been able to tie one of these exotic fast radio bursts to a single astrophysical object.”

The detection began on 27 April, when researchers using two space telescopes picked up multiple X-ray and gamma-ray emissions coming from a magnetar at the other end of our galaxy. The next day, researchers used to two North American telescopes to observe that patch of sky, and picked up the blast that came to be known as FRB 200428.

Comments