The depiction of an artist demonstrates the persistent fast radio that was discovered with the five-hundred-meter spherical aperture radio telescope, the world’s largest monoplate telescope, in southwest China’s Guizhou Province. NATIONAL ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY, CAS
An international team led by Chinese astronomers has discovered a new type of fast radio, extremely short but bright flashes in the universe that mysteriously continue to explode about once every 10 to 15 minutes on average, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. .
Scientists say that this extraordinary finding has challenged the conventional understanding of this celestial event and may shed light on the mysteries surrounding the origin and potential evolution of these explosions, which are capable of releasing as much energy as the Earth does. only in a year in a few thousandths. of a second.
The discovery was made for the first time with the five-hundred-meter spherical aperture radio telescope, the world’s largest monoplane telescope, located in southwest China’s Guizhou Province during the survey program. Commensal radio astronomy fast.
Researchers from China, the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan, and Australia, along with several observatories around the world, then collaborated to study this unique specimen.
Since its discovery in 2007, fast-paced radio bursts have been a hot topic of discussion in astronomy circles. These events are notoriously difficult to detect because many originated outside our galaxy and only exist for a very short time.
With the help of highly sensitive telescopes, scientists have now discovered about 500 FRBs, most of which are one-off events. But 24 of them, for reasons that are still unknown, can repeat their explosions during a certain active phase and then take a break before the next active period.
“The fascinating part of the newly discovered fast radio is that it always seems to be active. It doesn’t pause like other recurring FRBs, and it just keeps going,” said Li Di, chief scientist and leader of FAST. international team scientist.
The persistent fast radio, called FRB 20190520B, was discovered on May 20, 2019 by Niu Chenhui, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
“I find it a bit romantic for this FRB to be unveiled on May 20, the unofficial day of love for Chinese netizens,” Niu said. “In a way, it’s like a love letter from the cosmos to the global astronomy community, which inspires us to be amazed and fall in love with what the universe has to offer.”
After Niu made the initial discovery, astronomers at the California Institute of Technology and the University of Tokyo worked together to locate this unique celestial event and study its properties.
The source of FRB 20190520B was inside a dwarf galaxy about 3.3 billion light-years from Earth. The scientists found that the dwarf galaxy has the most complex electromagnetic environment of all known FRB host galaxies known to date.
Niu said that FRB 20190520B shares many similarities with the first repeated fast radio discovered, called FRB20121102A, except that the former seems to have infinite exuberance and resides in a more complex local environment.
“Could it be that the newly discovered FRB repeater is a little brother of the former? Can FRBs evolve? These questions are very interesting and can help us unravel more secrets behind these mysterious events,” he said.
Scientists have hypothesized that the sources of FRB may be remnants of supernova explosions, black holes, or an extremely magnetic, dense stellar object known as a magnet. However, none of these candidates have been conclusively confirmed by scientists yet.
Jonathan Katz, professor of physics at the University of Washington at St. Louis, who did not participate in the new study, said it has been shown that FRB 20190520B is immersed in a dense cloud of gas and that its persistent bursts can be fed by a massive black. Hidden hole nearby that is consuming gas at an extreme speed and creating a huge heat in the process.
Duncan Lorimer, a professor at the University of West Virginia who discovered the first fast radio, said the latest discovery has challenged the conventional view of FRBs and their host environments.
Lorimer, who did not participate in the study, said he believed that FRBs could have multiple sources, and as the number of FRBs discovered increases, scientists will come closer to understanding this intriguing phenomenon.