Scientists have finally figured out the source of the mysterious, powerful signals that had been flowing in from deep space for more than a year now.
The superfast radio bursts that flash just once and last no more than a few milliseconds, were first traced back to the source by astronomers one year ago.
Three more such signals have been traced back to galaxies that are billions of lightyears away since then. However, because they are located so far away from the Earth, astronomers have not been able to identify the specific stars where they might have originated.
A research team led by Shivani Bhandari, Astrophysicist, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia, traced back the location of four new fast radio bursts -- FRB 180924, FRB 181112, FRB 190102, and FRB 190608 -- to galaxies that are still forming new stars at a moderate rate, just like our Milky Way galaxy.
Bhandari’s research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters revealed that the four fast radio bursts were not coming from the heart of the galaxies but from the edges. It stated: “These precisely localised fast radio bursts came from the outskirts of their home galaxies, removing the possibility that they have anything to do with supermassive black holes.”
The radio bursts were discovered in 2007 and astronomers had been trying to find out what their source and what causes them since them. And while they might have been traced, researchers are still unsure about what is causing them. Possible explanations include neutron stars, imploding pulsars, blitzars, flares from magnetars, or even aliens (although it is the least likely).
Scientists say most of the radio bursts are one-off signals, although some have repeated, which is how scientists could actually trace them back to their source galaxy. So far, only two repeating fast radio bursts have been isolated by astronomers.
They believe, studying these radio bursts can help understand the galaxies that dissipated them into the Universe.
Explaining this further, Bhandari said: “Just like doing video calls with colleagues shows you their homes and gives you a bit of an insight into their lives, looking into the host galaxies of fast radio bursts gives us insights to their origins.”
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