2023-10-27 19:07:30
Astronomers call them fast radio bursts because they last no more than a few thousandths of a second. They have just identified some that are even briefer. Ultra-fast radio bursts that turn off a few millionths of a second following turning on.
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[EN VIDÉO] Repetitive fast radio bursts The origin of fast radio bursts — or Fast Radio Burst (FRB) — remains mysterious. Some…
Rapid radio bursts — or fast radio bursts (FRB) for English speakers — are phenomena that retain their share of mystery. They are among the most energetic astronomical phenomena. Capable of releasing as much energy as our Sun in several years in just a few thousandths of a second, a few milliseconds. And a team reports today in the journal Nature Astronomy having discovered even more astonishing. Ultra-fast radio bursts. FRBs that last no more than a few millionths of a second, a few microseconds.
A few microseconds for a radio burst
It’s thanks to the project Breakthrough Listen — a program intended to find forms of intelligent extraterrestrial life in our Universe — that astronomers have made the discovery. They worked on 5 hours of data recorded from a known fast radio burst, FRB 20121102 A. They divided each second of the first 30 minutes into 500,000 frames and then relied on machine learning to isolate anomalies in all of this data .
The researchers thus identified eight ultra-fast radio bursts. Events that lasted no more than ten millionths of a second. From there to imagining that there is an entire population of FRBs that are missing from astronomers’ data, there is only one step. Which the researchers intend to cross.
Ultra-fast radio bursts to map the interstellar medium
But to do this, they will need to find data that is sufficiently detailed to be able to be cut as finely as the hunt for ultra-fast radio bursts requires. If astronomers succeed, they will be able to use these new FRBs to map the interstellar medium with even greater precision. A bit like the world lights up when you change your glasses.
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