There have been strange, powerful radio energy bursts observed from within our galaxies, scientists have said.
Fast radio bursts, also known as FRBs, can be 100 million times stronger than the Sun by just a fraction of a second. Their nature remains widely unknown, considering their strength.
Now, for the first time, astronomers have been able to observe a short radio burst in our own Milky Way. They could eventually help solve the mystery of where they come from and be closer than any FRB ever detected before.
Since they are too short, erratic, and source far away, scientists have had difficulty tracing such blasts' sources. They could be created in some of the most intense circumstances imaginable in the world. Some of them suggested hypotheses spanning anything from dying stars to alien technologies.
Scientists who found the latest FRBs claimed the blasts of radio energy seem to have originated from a magnetar or a star with a powerful magnetic field. They were able to confirm that if it was seen from outside of our own galaxy, the blast might look like the other, more remote FRBs, indicating that at least some of the other blasts could indeed be produced somewhere by related artifacts.
"There's this great mystery as to what would produce these great outbursts of energy, which until now we've seen coming from halfway across the universe," said Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT, who led the team's analysis of the FRB's brightness. "This is the first time we've been able to tie one of these exotic fast radio bursts to a single astrophysical object."
How did scientists discover such a phenomenon?
The observation started on 27 April, when numerous X-ray and gamma-ray emissions from a magnetar at the other end of our galaxy were picked up by researchers utilizing two space telescopes. The next day, to study the patch of space, researchers used two North American telescopes and picked up the blast that came to be identified as FRB 200428.
The blast is the first to transmit pollutants other than radio-waves, besides becoming the first FRB from the Milky Way aligned with a magnetar.
In three articles published in the Nature journal, the study is defined. It depended on evidence from telescopes across the globe, using measurements from instruments in Canada, the US, China, and space from a scientist's multinational team.
Experts initially discovered FRBsi n 2007. They quickly sparked a burst of theories over what could trigger such powerful energy bursts. Magnetars have emerged as a possible nominee, primarily provided the theoretical work that indicates that their magnetic fields could work like motors, driving powerful blasts.
If it can be proved that the FRB comes from a magnetar, there are still several mysteries remaining. Astronomers would need to search for the process that causes an FRB to control the magnetar, trying, for example, to explain how it might simultaneously send out both vivid, irregular energy bursts and X-ray emissions.
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