Astronomers have welcomed a mysterious radio eruption from space, which repeats in a regular pattern lasting more than 100 days.
Researchers at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Macclesfield saw the radio burst (FRB 121102), repeated in a 90-day pattern, followed by a silent period of 67 days.
This month, other telescopes have discovered new bursts from the same location – and they are on schedule, Science Alert reported.
Astronomers have called observers to check the location to see if it follows its predicted pattern, which would mean the bursts would stop later this month than early September.
Fast radio bursts are light pulses of radio emission just milliseconds in duration, but incredibly energetic, detected by telescopes on Earth.
Theories about what causes the bursts range from highly magnetized neutron stars blasting through a nearby supermassive black hole to signatures of technology developed by advanced civilizations.
Read more: Astronomers connect to source of mysterious radio bursts from space
Another team from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, detected bursts between 2017 and June 2020, and predicted a “pattern” lasting 161 days, according to research uploaded to pre-print server arXiv.
Researchers led by Pei Wang of China’s National Astronomy Observatory checked the location of FRB 121102 between March and July.
On August 17, the team discovered 12 bursts of the location.
Wang and his team wrote: “With this putative period, the intended eviction date is around August 31 – September 9, 2020.
‘Alternatively, if the source is continuous at the after-projected shutdown time, it suggests that the putative period of the source is not real or has evolution. We encourage more surveillance for oversight of other radio observers. ”
Earlier this year, researchers at Jodrell Bank analyzed one ‘Fast Radio Burst’, like FRB, and found a cyclical pattern that lasted 157 days.
Analyzing 32 bursts, researchers examined bursts observed in a window that lasted about 90 days, followed by a silent period of 67 days.
Read more: What are rapid radio bursts, and why do they look like strangers?
The presence of a repeating pattern could mean that the powerful bursts are linked to the orbital motion of a massive star, a neutron star or a black hole.
Dr Kaustubh Rajwade, of the University of Manchester, who led the July study, said: “This is an exciting result because it is only the second system where we believe we are seeing this modulation in burst activity. .
“Detecting a periodicity imposes a significant constraint on the origin of the bursts and the activity cycles can argue against a previous neutron star.”
Read more: Telescope detects 100 mysterious radio signals billions of light-years away
The existence of FRBs was only discovered in 2007 and they were initially thought of as a one-off event in connection with a cataclysmic event such as an exploding star.
This image was partially modified once FRB 121102, originally discovered with the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico on November 2, 2012, was seen repeated in 2016.
