Astronomers are baffled after the detection of powerful bursts of radio waves coming from a distant dwarf galaxy with the use of a massive telescope in China.
The finding allows scientists to move closer to solving what is called a "cosmic mystery" that was detected previously as well. The phenomenon was first discovered in 2007 when astronomers struggled to understand what caused fast radio bursts involving pulses of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation originating from places inside our Milky Way and other galaxies.
Unknown Radio Bursts
Radio waves are known to have the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers previously suspected that radio bursts may be unleashed by certain extreme objects in the universe. These could include things like a neutron star, the compact collapsed core of a massive star that exploded as a supernova at the end of its lifecycle.
It could also result from a magnetar, which is a type of neutron star with an ultra-strong magnetic field, or a black hole messily eating a neighboring star. On Wednesday, researchers said that they have detected a fast radio burst, also known as FRB, originating from a dwarf galaxy located 3 billion light-years from Earth, as per Reuters.
This particular FRB was first spotted in 2019 using the FAST telescope in China's Guizhou province, which is the world's largest single-dish radio telescope. It possesses a signal-receiving area equal to 30 football fields. The FRB was also studied further using the VLA telescope found in New Mexico.
Astrophysicist Di Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, who is the FAST chief scientist and co-author of the research published in the journal Nature, said that they still call fast radio bursts a cosmic mystery. Caltech astronomer and co-author of the study Casey Law said that FRBs are intense, brief flashes of radio light that are powerful enough to be seen from across the universe.
According to CNN, while astronomers have successfully traced back some FRBs to their home galaxies, they are still in the dark about the actual cause of the pulses. Studying more about the origin of these bright, intense radio emissions could allow scientists to understand more about what causes them.
Repeated Space Mystery
Astronomers noticed something unusual when they conducted follow-up observations, which is that the object was releasing frequent, repeating bursts of radio waves. The phenomenon is very similar to another known repeating fast radio burst known as FRB 121102 that was detected in 2016.
Law said that the biggest surprise about the finding was that the new FRB seemed to be such a perfect "twin" to the previous discovery. The astronomer said, "Perhaps some would have preferred to say that the first such association [between an FRB and radio source] was a coincidence because it was hard to explain. Now the second example shows that this is a real and critical part of the life of an FRB."
The finding has raised new questions about the nature of FRBs, including if the sources of the FRBs evolve over time or alternatively, whether different kinds of sources are capable of emitting FRBs, Space reported.
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