Astronomers are surprised to find the closest source of the mysterious flashes called the fast radio burst (FRB). Precise measurements of the extremely fast radio burst revealed that they are made among old stars near the spiral galaxy M81 (Messier 81). The team did not expect to find the source so close and in that location.
FRBs are unpredictable and extremely bright flashes in space, which are detected using radio telescopes. Astronomers have struggled to understand them since the first fast radio burst was detected in 2007. But knowing where they come from will help scientists understand their mechanisms.
Strangely Familiar Fast Radio Burst
According to Space.com, astronomers seem to have experienced déjà vu upon looking closer at the mysterious series of bright flashes coming from 12 million light-years away. They said that the FRB appeared to resemble the flashes they found in the Crab Nebula, a famous remnant of a supernova.
Ancient people from 1054 AD observed and recorded the bright flashes that time, noting its brilliant bright flashes that look a lot like the newly found FRBs that occurred in galaxy M81.
Researchers said in a news release via EurekAlert! that some of the signals they measured are short but extremely powerful, similar to the signals from the Crab nebula. The explosion from that century was recorded on July 4, 1054, by Chinese astronomers who reportedly saw a guest star above the southern horn of Taurus.
Space.com previously reported that the Chinese astronomers recorded the guest star shone six times more luminous than Venus in the sky for 23 days. It was even visible two years after the explosion, which the Arab and Japanese astronomers have recorded as well.
By 1731, French astronomer Charles Messier independently observed the now-famous Messier objects and identified the nebula as Messier 1 or M1. But in 1960, astronomers detected fluctuating radio sources that coincided with Crab Nebula's location and determined that it came from a pulsar.
Despite knowing the cause of the bursts from the Crab Nebula, astronomers are not sure what is inside the galaxy M81. The FRBs in this galaxy were first detected in January 2020, coming from the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear.
Today, most FRB are found in galaxies with young stars, but the recent discovery is an exception since galaxy M81 consists of an old group of stars called a globular cluster.
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Extremely Fast Radio Burst May Come From Magnetars
Mysterious repeating fast radio burst from space looks strangely familiar, scientists realize https://t.co/lYr81r6a01 pic.twitter.com/WknTYHOpqX
— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) February 26, 2022
Scientists predicted that fast radio bursts can be created in objects called magnetars. SciTech Daily reported that these magnetars are extremely dense remnants of a supernova and are known to be the most powerful magnets in the universe.
The team believes that the source of the radio flashes has been predicted before, although it has never been seen. They hypothesize that a magnetar formed when a white dwarf became massive enough to explode and collapse in its own weight.
Astronomers noted that strange things could happen in the multi-billion-year life of tight cluster stars. In time, stars like the Sun in the Solar System would also grow old and turn into a small, dense, bright object called a white dwarf.
They believe that the FRBs they detected recently could give them unexpected and new insight into how stars live and die, which is helpful to predict supernovas and know the lives of stars across the whole universe.
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