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A little luck helped astronomers solve a mystery in space: What causes powerful but super-fast energy signals moving across the universe?
Scientists have been aware of these signals, called fast radio bursts, for about 13 years. And they saw them coming from outside ours galaxy. This makes it harder to know what is causing them. What makes it even more difficult is that they happen so fast – in a few thousandths of a second.
Then, in April, two dissimilar telescopes found a rare but much fainter burst from inside our galaxy. One of the telescopes was the handcrafted equipment of a California doctoral student, which included metal cookware. The other was based in a $ 20 million Canadian space observation center.
They linked the fast radio flash to a strange type of star called a magnetar that is 32,000 light years from Earth. That information comes from four studies on Wednesday magazine publication Nature.
It wasn’t just the first fast radio burst attached to a file source; it was also the first to arrive from our galaxy. Astronomers say there may be other sources for these explosions. But now they are sure of one of the sources: the magnetars.
Magnetars have 1.5 times the mass of our sun, clustered in a space the size of the Manhattan area of New York. They have huge magnetic fields filled with energy and sometimes explosions X-ray and the radio waves suddenly come from them. That information comes from Ziggy Pleunis. He is an astrophysicist at McGill University and co-author of the Canadian study.
The magnetic field around these magnetars “is so strong that every nearby atom is torn apart,” said astronomer Casey Law. He is with the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and has not been involved in the research.
There are perhaps about 12 of these magnetars in our galaxy. They are very young and part of the star birth process. And our Milky Way galaxy isn’t full of stellar births like other galaxies, said Cornell University’s Shami Chatterjee. He was not part of either of the two discovery teams.
This burst in less than a second had about the same amount of energy that our sun produces in a month. And that’s still much fainter than radio bursts from outside our galaxy, Christopher Bochenek said. The Caltech radio astronomer helped uncover the explosion with his handcrafted equipment.
Radio bursts aren’t dangerous to us, not even the most powerful ones outside our galaxy, astronomers say.
Those that come from outside our galaxy and travel millions or billions of light years are very powerful. They are tens of thousands to millions of times more powerful than anything we’ve found in our galaxy, explains Daniele Michilli, an astrophysicist at McGill University. He is co-author of the study and is part of the Canadian team.
Scientists think explosions can happen more than 1,000 times a day outside our galaxy. But finding them isn’t easy.
“You had to look in the right place at the right millisecond,” said Cornell’s Chatterjee. “Unless you’ve been very, very lucky, you won’t see one of these.”
Astronomers have no idea how often explosions occur within our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
“We still don’t know how lucky we’ve been,” Bochenek said. “This could be something once every five years or some events could happen every year.”
Loaf’s antennas costs around $ 15,000. Each is “the size of a great one bucket, “he said. It’s a 6-inch piece of metal pipe with two pieces of round metal pots around it, the graduate student explained. They’re simplistic tools designed to look at a huge piece of sky. And they’re meant to see only the most radio flash light.
Bochenek figured he had perhaps a 1 in 10 chance of catching a fast radio blast in a few years. But after only a year, he made a valuable discovery.
The Canadian observatory in British Columbia is much more developed but aims for a much smaller patch of sky. And he was able to find the source of the magnetar in the file constellation Vulpecula.
The explosions are affected by all the material they pass through in space. This could help astronomers understand and map the invisible material between galaxies and “weigh” the universe, Jason Hessels said. He is the chief astronomer of the Dutch Radio Astronomy Institute and did not participate in the research.
Astronomers have had up to 50 different ideas about what causes these fast radio bursts, including aliens. They say magnetars may not be the only answer.
I’m Alice Bryant.
The Associated Press reported this story. Alice Bryant adapted it for Learn English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in this story
galaxy – n. any of the large groups of stars that make up the universe
source – n. the cause or origin of something
X-ray – n. powerful invisible rays that can pass through various objects
antenna – n. a device (such as a wire or metal rod) for sending or receiving radio or television signals
bucket – n. an open container with a handle that is used for carrying things, such as liquids
alien – n. a creature that comes from a place other than planet Earth
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