Astronomers somewhat regularly detect signals from deep space known as "fast radio bursts" for which they are unable to explain the origin.
In many cases these signals can be traced to astronomical radio sources. In 2022, however, scientists made a stunning detection of an FRB that seemed to possess enough energy to outshine entire galaxies.
Now, researchers think they've discovered the source:
[A]stronomers at MIT have pinned down the origins of at least one fast radio burst using a novel technique that could do the same for other FRBs. In their new study, appearing today in the journal Nature, the team focused on FRB 20221022A — a previously discovered fast radio burst that was detected from a galaxy about 200 million light-years away.
The team zeroed in further to determine the precise location of the radio signal by analyzing its 'scintillation,' similar to how stars twinkle in the night sky. The scientists studied changes in the FRB's brightness and determined that the burst must have originated from the immediate vicinity of its source, rather than much further out, as some models have predicted.
Now, if you're like me, a lot of this is sort of over your head. You read about the "scintillation" and "brightness" of a radio signal and you're like...
But of course you get the sense that they're closing in on something here. And that's just what happened:
The team estimates that FRB 20221022A exploded from a region that is extremely close to a rotating neutron star, 10,000 kilometers away at most. That's less than the distance between New York and Singapore. At such close range, the burst likely emerged from the neutron star's magnetosphere — a highly magnetic region immediately surrounding the ultracompact star.
In case you're unfamiliar with the stellar life cycle, a neutron star is one form in which a very massive star can end up:
Unsurprisingly, neutron stars are extremely dense: A "normal-sized matchbox containing neutron-star material would have a weight of approximately 3 billion tonnes."
They also spin very fast, and many are known to emit bursts of radio waves — hence the FBR detection. And it's worth stating just how crazily powerful the forces generating those waves really are:
'Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as magnetars, atoms can't exist — they would just get torn apart by the magnetic fields,' says Kiyoshi Masui, associate professor of physics at MIT. 'The exciting thing here is, we find that the energy stored in those magnetic fields, close to the source, is twisting and reconfiguring such that it can be released as radio waves that we can see halfway across the universe.'
Very cool.
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