Scientists are unsure of what causes fast radio bursts or FRB
New Delhi:
Astronomers have detected a strange radio signal coming from another galaxy, nearly 3 billion light-years from Earth. This is the second time scientists have detected such a repeating signal.
Researchers have discovered a new Fast Radio Bursts (FRB), called FRB 20190520B. The researchers note that this signal “is localized to a compact, persistent radio source and is associated with a dwarf host galaxy with highly specific star formation.” The observations were published in a scientific journal Nature.
FRBs were detected by the Five Hundred-Meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in Guizhou, China, in May 2019. Additional observations recorded nearly 75 other FRBs over a period of 5 years. month in 2020. The signal was then localized using the US National Science Foundation’s Karl G Jansky Very Large Array (VLA).
Observations suggest that the emitter is also responsible for emitting smaller, weaker radio bursts between FRBs. These characteristics mark the signal from FRB 20190520B as extremely similar to the first FRB placed in 2016, FRB 12110.
Scientists aren’t sure what causes FRB, but they hypothesized that the FRB was an infant and that it was emitting signals as it was still surrounded by “dense matter ejected by supernova explosions left behind by neutron stars.” According to the ‘infant’ theory, it is assumed that the signals will gradually weaken as the FRB ages.
“The field of FRB is currently evolving very quickly and new discoveries are being published every month. However, big questions remain, and this object is giving us challenging clues about those questions,” said Sarah Burke-Spolaor, co-author of the study.
More than a dozen FRBs have been localized previously, five of which include repeating FRB sources. These discoveries, spurred on by technological advances in telemetry and radio astronomy, allow scientists to slowly gather more information about cosmic events such as the death of stars. massive and supermassive stars, and mergers of neutron stars and magnets.
