The source of the mysterious FRB radio signals has been located

Astronomers have located the source of mysterious radio signals (Fast radio burst, FRB) from outside our galaxy. The trail leads to a dwarf galaxy three billion light-years away from Earth.

It is about the so-called. Fast radio burst (FRB). They were first encountered in 2007. Since then, more than a dozen such signals have been recordedów. They lasted for fractions of a second, but in such a krótkim time generated a massive amount of energy poróequivalent to the energy emitted by the sun throughout the day. At least a few of them appear to have come from the same place, whichóre named FRB 121102.

Researchers using the Very Large Array (a radio astronomy observatory located in the US state of New Mexico, VLA) have finally been able to determine the origin of these puzzling signalsów.

– We know that these pulses come from a dwarf galaxy more than three billion light years away from Earth – admitted Shami Chatterjee of Cornell University, one of the scientists of theów involved in the discovery. – This is a huge advance in our knowledge of FRB – added.

Photo. Gemini Observatory/AURA/NSF/NRC

– This is a cosmological phenomenon. It does not happen on our subórku, but we have located the source of theódło of his origin. The fact that the signals are coming from such a tiny galaxy is a surprise. Now we need to find out why this is happening, what is causing these signals – explained participating researcher Casey Law of the University of California at Berkeley.

Since the FRB was first recorded, the efforts of scientistsów focus on determining their cause. Several hypotheses have emerged regarding the mysterious signalów. One of these mówi that they come from a rotating neutron star. Another mówi that their sourceóThe bottom line is cosmic cataclysms such as supernova explosions, or the collapse of neutron stars into black holes. Still another points to theoretical astronomical objects called blitzars as the source of theódło FRB. Blitzar is a variety of neutron star, whichórej mass is large enough to collapse into a black hole, but this is prevented by the centrifugal force from the star’s high spin speed. Another focuses on so-called. contact sub systemsójnych, i.e., circulating very close to each other twoóch stars.

The discovery of the sourceódła signalów was presented at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Texas and simultaneously published on the „Nature” i „Astrophysical Journal Letters”.