A team of astronomers from universities in Canada and the United States, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), detected a signal of fast, strange and persistent radio bursts, with a pattern similar to a heartbeat, coming from a galaxy billions of light years away from Earth.
According to him MITNews, the signal is classified as a fast radio burst or FRB, a large number of radio waves whose origin is unknown. They usually only last a few milliseconds. However, the strange signal detected, called FRB 20191221A, had a duration of three seconds, a thousand times longer than the average FRB and with the clearest periodic pattern detected to date.
Furthermore, when the astronomers analyzed the waves within three seconds they found that there was a clear periodic pattern, in which the waves repeated every 0.2 seconds, similar to the beating of a heart.
The discovery of FRB 20191221A was made by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope, located at the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada.
CHIME, which has been in operation since 2018, is constantly observing the sky and, in addition to fast radio bursts, is sensitive to radio waves emitted by hydrogen in the distant universe.
Although the researchers are not sure of the source of the signal, they suspect that it comes from a radio pulsar or a magnetar, which are types of neutron stars, that is, extremely dense and rotating collapsed cores of giant stars. quickly.
Through a releaseDaniele Michilli, a postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, supported the hypothesis by noting that “there aren’t many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals”:
Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce an emission similar to that of a lighthouse. So we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar with asteroids.
According to the study, the first FRB was detected in 2007, prompting a search to pinpoint the source and hopefully unlock secrets about the space between galaxies by studying the signal’s path.
Following the finding, astronomers hope to capture additional bursts from FRB 20191221A, which may help narrow down the source of the signal and learn more about neutron stars.
This detection raises the questions of what could cause this extreme signal that we have never seen before and how we can use it to study the universe.
Source: Okchicas
With 6 years of experience, I bring to the table captivating and informative writing in the world news category. My expertise covers a range of industries, including tourism, technology, forex and stocks. From brief social media posts to in-depth articles, I am dedicated to creating compelling content for various platforms.
