2024-01-12 02:53:49
WASHINGTON, EU.- Astronomers have traced one of the most powerful and distant fast radio bursts ever detected back to its unusual cosmic origin: a peculiar set of “blob”-shaped galaxies.
It is Unexpected discovery might provide more insight into reasons behind enigmatic bursts of radio waves that have baffled scientists for years.
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According to information from CNN, the powerful signal, known as FRB 20220610A, was first identified on June 10, 2022 and traveled across a distance of 8 billion light years to reach Earth. A light year represents the distance that light travels in one year, equivalent to 9.46 billion kilometers (5.88 billion miles).
Las Fast Radio Bursts (FRB)) are brief, intense bursts of radio waves, lasting milliseconds and of still unknown origin. The first FRB was identified in 2007, and since then hundreds of these fleeting cosmic flashes have been observed from distant points in the universe.
Signal lasted less than a millisecond
This particular fast radio burst lasted less than a millisecond, but was four times more energetic than previously detected FRBs. The explosion released the equivalent of our sun’s energy emissions over the course of 30 years, according to an initial study published in October.
Many FRBs emit super-bright radio waves that last at most a few milliseconds before disappearing, making them difficult to observe.
Los Radio telescopes have proven useful in tracking the trajectories of fast cosmic flashesso researchers used the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, radio telescope in Western Australia, and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, to determine where the enigmatic burst originated.
The oObservations led scientists to a gigantic celestial spot, which was initially thought to be a single irregular galaxy or a group of three interacting galaxies.
Now, the Astronomers have used images from the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal that the fast radio burst came from a group of at least seven galaxies so close together that they might all fit inside the Milky Way.
The findings were presented Tuesday at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.
Unusual galactic group
Las Galaxies in the group appear to be interacting and might even be in the process of mergingwhich might have triggered the fast radio burst, according to the researchers.
“Without the Hubble images, it would remain a mystery whether this FRB originated in a monolithic galaxy or in some type of interacting system,” he says in a statement. Alexa Gordon, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
“It’s these kinds of environments—these strange ones—that push us toward a better understanding of the mystery of FRBs.”
The galactic group, known as a compact group, is exceptional and an example of the “densest galaxy-scale structures we know of,” said the study’s co-author. Wen-fai Fong, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern and Gordon’s doctoral dissertation director.
As galaxies interact, they might trigger bursts of star formationwhich might be related to the explosion, Gordon said.
Fast radio bursts have been detected mainly in isolated galaxiesbut astronomers have also found them in globular clusters and, now, in a compact group, explains Gordon.
“We need to continue to find more of these types of FRBs, both near and far, and in all these types of environments,” he said.
They investigate origins of fast radio bursts
have been detected nearly a thousand fast radio bursts since its initial discovery regarding two decades agobut astronomers are still unclear regarding what causes them.
However, many agree that they are probably due to compact objects, such as black holes or neutron stars, the dense remains of exploded stars. Magnetars, or highly magnetized stars, may be the cause of fast radio bursts, according to recent research.
Understanding the origin of fast radio bursts might help astronomers better determine the underlying cause that launches them across the universe.
“Despite hundreds of FRB events discovered to date, only a fraction of them have been identified with their host galaxies,” study co-author Yuxin Vic Dong said in a statement. “Within that small fraction, only a few came from a dense galactic environment, but none had ever been seen in such a compact group. Therefore, his birthplace is truly rare.” Dong is a National Science Foundation graduate researcher and astronomy doctoral student in Fong’s lab at Northwestern.
And Greater knowledge of fast radio bursts might also lead to revelations regarding the nature of the universe. As the bursts travel through space for billions of years, they interact with cosmic material
“Radio waves, in particular, are sensitive to any intervening material along the line of sight, from the FRB location to us,” Dong said. “That means the waves have to travel through any cloud of material around the FRB site, through its host galaxy, through the universe and finally through the Milky Way. From a delay in the FRB signal itself, we can measure the sum of all these contributions”.
Los Astronomers envision increasingly sensitive methods for detecting fast radio bursts in the future, which might lead to discovering more of them at greater distancesGordon noted.
“Ultimately, we are trying to answer the questions: What causes them? Who are their parents and what are their origins? “Hubble observations provide a spectacular view of the surprising types of environments that give rise to these mysterious events,” Fong said.
Source: X @CNNEE
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