Astronomers Trace Mysterious Fast Radio Burst To Extreme, Rare Star (cnet.com) 17
The first detection of a fast radio burst inside the Milky Way leads scientists back to a magnetar, partially solving a long-standing mystery. CNET reports: Sifting through a trove of radio telescope data in 2007, Duncan Lorimer, an astrophysicist at West Virginia University, spotted something unusual. Data obtained six years earlier showed a brief, energetic burst, lasting no more than 5 milliseconds. Others had seen the blip and looked past it, but Lorimer and his team calculated that it was an entirely new phenomenon: a signal emanating from somewhere far outside the Milky Way. The team had no idea what had caused it but they published their results in Science. The mysterious signal became known as a "fast radio burst," or FRB. In the 13 years since Lorimer's discovery, dozens of FRBs have been discovered outside of the Milky Way -- some repeating and others ephemeral, single chirps. Astrophysicists have been able to pinpoint their home galaxies, but they've struggled to identify the cosmic culprit, putting forth all sorts of theories, from exotic physics to alien civilizations.
On Wednesday, a trio of studies in the journal Nature describes the source of the first FRB discovered within the Milky Way, revealing the mechanism behind at least some of the highly energetic radio blasts. The newly described burst, dubbed FRB 200428, was discovered and located after it pinged radio antennas in the US and Canada on April 28, 2020. A hurried hunt followed, with teams of researchers around the globe focused on studying the FRB across the electromagnetic spectrum. It was quickly determined that FRB 200428 is the most energetic radio pulse ever detected in our home galaxy.
In the suite of new papers, astrophysicists outline their detective work and breakthrough observations from a handful of ground- and space-based telescopes. Linking together concordant observations, researchers pin FRB 200428 on one of the most unusual wonders of the cosmos: a magnetar, the hypermagnetic remains of a dead supergiant star. It's the first time astrophysicists have been able to finger a culprit in the intergalactic whodunit -- but this is just the beginning. "There really is a lot more to be learned going forward," says Amanda Weltman, an astrophysicist at the University of Cape Town and author of a Nature news article accompanying the discovery. "This is just the first exciting step."
On Wednesday, a trio of studies in the journal Nature describes the source of the first FRB discovered within the Milky Way, revealing the mechanism behind at least some of the highly energetic radio blasts. The newly described burst, dubbed FRB 200428, was discovered and located after it pinged radio antennas in the US and Canada on April 28, 2020. A hurried hunt followed, with teams of researchers around the globe focused on studying the FRB across the electromagnetic spectrum. It was quickly determined that FRB 200428 is the most energetic radio pulse ever detected in our home galaxy.
In the suite of new papers, astrophysicists outline their detective work and breakthrough observations from a handful of ground- and space-based telescopes. Linking together concordant observations, researchers pin FRB 200428 on one of the most unusual wonders of the cosmos: a magnetar, the hypermagnetic remains of a dead supergiant star. It's the first time astrophysicists have been able to finger a culprit in the intergalactic whodunit -- but this is just the beginning. "There really is a lot more to be learned going forward," says Amanda Weltman, an astrophysicist at the University of Cape Town and author of a Nature news article accompanying the discovery. "This is just the first exciting step."
Seems familiar (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Next up:
We Finally Know Why /. Editors Post Dupes!
Tune in next week as we discuss Laziness and You had one job! /s
Re: No Aliens For You (Score:1)
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I don't feel simulated.
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I don't feel simulated.
Working as intended.
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>Life seems to evolve wherever the conditions are suitable
We have only one example to go by, it may be exceedingly rare even in favourable conditions. Conditions which we can speculate at but don't know for certain.
Life existed for billions of years on earth and for fewer than 100 years has earth life gone into space.
If there's life out there, there could be millions of planets with nothing more complicated than single-celled life. Not that exciting but there you have it.
Maybe all the science-fiction in
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2030 begs to differ ...
More like slash dot editors fail with another dupe (Score:1)
No shit (Score:2)
Mysterious Extreme Rare and Fast Radio Burst Linked To Mysterious Extreme, Rare Star?
Who would have thought?
Well, it’s solved (Score:2)