fast radio bursts (FRBs) Archives

November 21, 2024November 21, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Are Fast Radio Bursts Caused by Interstellar Objects Crashing Into Neutron Stars?

This magnetar is a highly magnetized neutron star. This artist's illustration shows an outburst from a magnetar. Neutron stars that spin rapidly and give out radiation are called pulsars, and specific pulsars are rare in the core of the Milky Way. Credit: NASA/JPL-CalTech

Every now and then, astronomers will detect an odd kind of radio signal. So powerful it can outshine a galaxy, but lasting only milliseconds. They are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). When they were first discovered a couple of decades ago, we had no idea what might cause them. We weren’t even sure if they were astronomical in origin. FRB’s were so localized and so short-lived, it was difficult to gather data on them. But with wide-field radio telescopes such as CHIME we can now observe FRBs regularly and have a pretty good idea of their source: magnetars.

February 15, 2024February 15, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

Another Clue Into the True Nature of Fast Radio Bursts

Artist's concept of a magnetar. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are strange events. They can last only milliseconds, but during that time can outshine a galaxy. Some FRBs are repeaters, meaning that they can occur more than once from the same location, while others seem to occur just once. We still aren’t entirely sure what causes them, or even if the two types have the same cause. But thanks to a collaboration of observations from ground-based radio telescopes and space-based X-ray observatories, we are starting to figure FRBs out.

October 22, 2023October 23, 2023 by Laurence Tognetti

Now Astronomers have Discovered “Ultra-Fast Radio Bursts” Lasting Millionths of a Second

Artist rendition of a radio telescope discovering ultra-fast radio bursts that were recently discovered and the focus of this recent study. (Credit: Daniëlle Futselaar/www.artsource.nl)

A recent study published in Nature Astronomy examines the discovery of what astronomers are dubbing “ultra-fast radio bursts”, a new type of fast radio bursts (FRBs) that the team determined lasts for a mind-boggling ten millionths of a second or less. Traditionally, FRBs have been found to last only thousandths of a second, but this study builds on a 2021 study that hypothesized FRBs could possibly last for millionths of a second. This also comes after astronomers recently announced the discovery of the oldest and farthest FRB ever observed, approximately 8 billion light-years from Earth.

April 18, 2023April 18, 2023 by Nancy Atkinson

Three Fast Radio Bursts Punched Right Through a Nearby Galaxy

Three new Fast Radio Bursts discovered by the Westerbork telescope were shown to have pierced the halo of our neighbouring Triangulum Galaxy. Invisible electrons in that galaxy deform the FRBs. From sharp, new, live images, astronomers could estimate the maximum number of invisible atoms in the Triangulum Galaxy for the first time. (Credit: ASTRON/Futselaar/van Leeuwen)

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are cosmic mysteries that are slowly but surely revealing their secrets. These bright flashes of light are visible in the radio wave part of the spectrum and usually last only a few milliseconds before fading away forever. They come from random locations across the Universe and are so powerful that we can see them emanating from billions of light-years away.

Astronomers have used a newly upgraded radio telescope array to find five new FRBs and discovered that multiple bursts pierced right through the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). These brief flashes lit up the gas inside M33, allowing astronomers to calculate the maximum number of otherwise invisible atoms.

June 24, 2022June 24, 2022 by Brian Koberlein

Astronomers Find a Brand new Pulsar That's Probably Less Than 14 Years old

Artist view of the neutron star VT 1137-0337. Credit: Melissa Weiss, NRAO/AUI/NSF

Neutron stars are dense remnants of large stars. They are the collapsed cores of stars formed during a supernova explosion. While we know generally how they form, we are still learning how they evolve, particularly when they are young. But that’s starting to change thanks to large sky surveys, which have allowed astronomers to observe a neutron star that could be little more than a decade old.

March 24, 2022March 24, 2022 by Brian Koberlein

New Radio Images of Bizarre “Odd Radio Circles” Which are Vastly Bigger Than the Milky Way

Artist depiction of an Odd Radio Circle. Credit: CSIRO

In radio astronomy, circle-shaped objects are fairly common. Since diffuse ionized gas often emits radio light, objects such as supernova remnants, planetary nebulae, and even star-forming regions can create circular arcs of diffuse gas. But in 2019 astronomers began to discover radio circles they couldn’t explain, in part because they are so large.

May 24, 2021May 24, 2021 by Scott Alan Johnston

Hubble Has Tracked Down the Source of 5 Different Fast Radio Bursts

In a new survey, astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have managed to pinpoint the location of several Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). FRBs are powerful jets of energy that, until recently, had mysterious, unknown origins. The research team, which includes University of California Santa Cruz’ Alexandra Manning and Sunil Simha, as well as Northwestern University’s Wen-fai Fong, performed a survey of eight FRBs, from which they were able to determine that five of them originated from a spiral arm in their host galaxies.

February 9, 2021February 10, 2021 by Scott Alan Johnston

A New Technique to Find Cold Gas Streams That Might Make up the Missing (Normal) Matter in the Universe

Credit: Mark Myers, OzGrav/Swinburne University

Where is all the missing matter? That question has plagued astronomers for decades, because the Universe looks emptier than it should, given current theories about its makeup. Most of the Universe (70%) appears to be composed of Dark Energy, the mysterious force which is causing the Universe’s rate of expansion to increase. Another 25% of the Universe is Dark Matter, an unknown substance which cannot be seen, but has been theorized to explain the otherwise inexplicable gravitational forces which govern the formation of galaxies. That leaves Baryonic Matter – all the normal ‘stuff’ like you, me, the trees, the planets, and the stars – to make up just 5% of the Universe. But when astronomers look out into the sky, there doesn’t even seem to be enough normal matter to make up 5%. Some of the normal matter is missing!

November 17, 2020November 17, 2020 by Paul M. Sutter

Fast radio bursts within the Milky Way seem to be coming from magnetars

Fast radio bursts are some of the most mysterious events known in astronomy, but they are slowly becoming better understood. Case in point: recent observations of a fast radio burst in the Milky Way reveals the powerhouse behind the blasts: a flaring magnetar.

February 12, 2020February 12, 2020 by Evan Gough

A Rare Fast Radio Burst has been Found that Actually Repeats Every 16 Days

Taken with the HAWK-I instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope in the Chilean Atacama Desert, this stunning image shows the Milky Way’s central region with an angular resolution of 0.2 arcseconds. This means the level of detail picked up by HAWK-I is roughly equivalent to seeing a football (soccer ball) in Zurich from Munich, where ESO’s headquarters are located. The image combines observations in three different wavelength bands. The team used the broadband filters J (centred at 1250 nanometres, in blue), H (centred at 1635 nanometres, in green), and Ks (centred at 2150 nanometres, in red), to cover the near infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum. By observing in this range of wavelengths, HAWK-I can peer through the dust, allowing it to see certain stars in the central region of our galaxy that would otherwise be hidden.

A team of scientists in Canada have found a Fast Radio Burst (FRB) that repeats every 16 days. This is in stark contrast to other FRBs, which are more sporadic. Some of those sporadic FRBs occur in clusters, and repeat irregularly, but FRBs with a regular, repeatable occurrence are rare.