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Astronomers have said that mysterious and intense bursts of radio energy have been detected from within our galaxy.
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 Milky Way, for the first time ever. In addition to being closer than any FRB ever detected, they could finally help solve the mystery of their provenance.
Scientists have had trouble tracing the origin of such explosions because they are so short, unpredictable and originate far away. It is clear that they must form under some of the most extreme conditions possible in the universe, with suggested explanations that include everything from dying stars to alien technology.
The bursts of radio energy appear to come from a magnetar, or a star with a very powerful magnetic field, said the scientists who discovered the new FRBs. They were able to confirm that the explosion would be similar to the other more distant FRBs if it were observed from outside our galaxy, suggesting that at least some of the other explosions could be formed from similar objects elsewhere.
“There is this great mystery about what these great bursts of energy would produce, which until now we have seen coming from half the universe,” said Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT, who led the team’s analysis. of the FRB brightness. “This is the first time we have been able to link one of these exotic fast radio bursts to a single astrophysical object.”
The detection began on April 27, when the researchers, using two space telescopes, detected multiple X-ray and gamma-ray emissions from a magnetar at the other end of our galaxy. The next day, the researchers used two North American telescopes to observe that piece of the sky and detected the explosion that became known as FRB 200428.
In addition to being the first FRB in the Milky Way and the first to be associated with a magnetar, the explosion is the first to emit emissions other than radio waves.
The research is described in three articles published in the journal Nature today. It was based on data taken from telescopes around the world, with an international team of scientists using observations taken from equipment in Canada, the United States, China and space.
FRBs were first discovered in 2007, immediately sparking a flurry of speculation about what might be capable of causing such intense bursts of energy. Magnetars have emerged as the most likely candidate, especially given the theoretical work that suggests their magnetic fields could function as motors, driving the powerful explosions.
To verify this, the astronomers attempted to position the origin of the explosions within the smallest possible parts of the sky. In theory, this should allow them to associate them with known objects in space and look for associations between bursts of radio energy and other astronomical phenomena.
The new study is the first to do this work and to provide evidence linking FRBs to magnetars. At the very least, this could be a valuable clue as to the origin of at least some of these FRBs.
“We calculated that such an intense explosion from another galaxy would be indistinguishable from some fast radio bursts, so this really gives weight to the theory that suggests that magnetars may be behind at least some FRBs,” said Pragya Chawla, one. co-authors of the study and a senior doctoral student in McGill’s Department of Physics.
The new findings may not yet explain all known FRBs “given the large energy and activity gaps between the brightest and most active FRB sources and what is observed for magnetars, perhaps younger, more energetic and active magnetars are needed. to explain all the FRB observations, “said Paul Scholz, of the Dunlap Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Toronto.
Whether the FRB can be shown to come from a magnetar, many mysteries still remain. Astronomers will have to look for the mechanism that allows the magnetar to power an FRB, trying for example to understand how it could emit bursts of energy and X-ray emissions so bright and unusual at the same time.
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