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It is not the fast radio burst. Radio waves are not visible to the eye. This is something else, from the Hubble Space Telescope. See a spectrum of the explosion below. Image via NASA / ESA / Hubble / ScienceAlert.
Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) are short, intense bursts of radio waves that last perhaps a thousandth of a second, from across the sky and of unknown origin. In a surprising discovery that could help solve one of astronomy’s biggest mysteries, on April 28, 2020, astronomers used a Telegram of astronomers to announce a fast radio burst originating in inside our galaxy, the Milky Way. That is first. All the other FRBs have been extragalactic, i.e. outside our galaxy Even more importantly, astronomers think they have also identified the source of the blast.
Explanations range from neutron stars to supernovae and the inevitable aliens.
Dynamic spectrum, a range of frequencies over time, from the rapid radio burst of April 28, 2020, via Astronomer’s Telegram.
FRBs were first detected in 2007. This new detection of a FRB is, in astronomical terms, very close to home. Astronomers found it using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope in Canada, an instrument specifically designed to study phenomena like FRBs to answer important questions in astrophysics. This particular telescope has greatly increased the explosion detection rate since its first light in September 2017.
At the time of the April 28 signal, the telescope was not pointing directly at the source. But the signal was so strong that the telescope captured it, so to speak, out of the corner of your eye. The signal was strong enough to be detected from another galaxy (indicating that it is the same phenomenon as previous extragalactic explosions detected from our galaxy), and had the typical duration of a fast radio burst.
The day before, on April 27, 2020, the Swift Burst Alert telescope had detected a series of gamma-ray bursts originating from the same point in the sky as the FRB. Those gamma rays are associated with a known object, labeled SGR 1935 + 2154, a so-called soft gamma repeater. This object is a type of stellar remnant known to periodically generate bursts of gamma rays. The distance to this object has been estimated at about 30,000 light years. For comparison, the Milky Way galaxy is over 150,000 light-years across.
Excitingly, at the same time there was an explosion of high-energy X-rays from the same point in the sky. The X-ray explosion was observed using space and ground X-ray telescopes. No FRB had ever been associated with gamma rays or X-rays before, making this observation, if indeed it was from an FRB, something entirely new.
Now you need to know that X-ray and gamma-ray bursts are not unusual in magnetar observations.
Artist’s concept of a rash on a magnetar. The fast radio burst detected in our galaxy may be associated with these types of eruptions. Image via NASA Goddard Visualization Studio.
SGR 1935 + 2154 is believed to be a magnetar, a type of neutron star with a hypermagnetic field strong enough to take your keys out of your pocket from as far away as the moon!
While the reason for this ultra-strong magnetic field, a thousand times stronger than that of a normal neutron star, is unknown, astronomers theorize that FRB could occur when the neutron star’s crust suffers an earthquake as a result of the tension between La intense gravity of the neutron star and its magnetic field. This tension can be sudden and incomprehensibly violent, released in the earthquake.
This may it means that the neutron star’s crust, believed to be a million times stronger than steel, slides only a millimeter; however, this small change may be enough to generate a brief explosion of radio energy so powerful that it can be detected from other galaxies, which we detect as FRB.
Maybe! It seems possible, anyway, and, in astrophysics, What is posible is the name of the game
However, this detection does not mean that astronomers are ready to confirm that all FRBs come from magnetars. The burst received by CHIME was at the low end of the signal intensity historically associated with FRBs, which may or may not be significant. So far, astronomers have not analyzed the signal’s waveform to see if it matches that of FRBs. However, if this analysis and the ongoing observations of magnetar SGR 1935 + 2154 conclusively demonstrate that magnetars are the source of rapid radio bursts, one of the biggest mysteries in astronomy will have been solved.
The CHIME radio telescope in Canada. It is specifically designed to study objects like fast radio bursts. Image via CHIME.
Bottom line: fast radio bursts are mysterious, short, intense bursts of radio waves from places across the sky. Before April 28, all the FRBs we knew were thought to come from outside our galaxy. On April 28 FRB, which apparently originated within our galaxy, will help astronomers solve thorny questions in astrophysics.
