A fast radio burst tracked down to a nearby galaxy:
In results published in the January 9 edition of Nature, the European VLBI Network (EVN) used eight telescopes spanning locations from the United Kingdom to China to simultaneously observe the repeating radio source known as FRB 180916.J0158+65. Using a technique known as Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI), the researchers achieved a level of resolution high enough to localize the FRB to a region approximately seven light years across -- a feat comparable to an individual on Earth being able to distinguish a person on the Moon.
With that level of precision, the research team was able to train an optical telescope onto the location to learn more about the environment from which the burst emanated. What they found has added a new chapter to the mystery surrounding the origins of FRBs.
"We used the eight-metre Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to take sensitive images that showed the faint spiral arms of a Milky-Way-like galaxy and showed that the FRB source was in a star-forming region in one of those arms," said co-author Shriharsh Tendulkar, a former McGill University postdoctoral researcher who co-led the optical imaging and spectroscopic analyses of the FRB's location.
[...] "The FRB is among the closest yet seen and we even speculated that it could be a more conventional object in the outskirts of our own galaxy," said co-author Mohit Bhardwaj, a McGill University doctoral student and CHIME team member.
"However the EVN observation proved that it's in a relatively nearby galaxy, making it still a puzzling FRB, but close enough to now study using many other telescopes."
A repeating fast radio burst source localized to a nearby spiral galaxy$, Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1866-z)
Related Stories
Jodrell Bank leads international effort which reveals 157 day cycle in unusual cosmic radio bursts
An investigation into one of the current great mysteries of astronomy has come to the fore thanks to a four-year observing campaign conducted at the Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Using the long-term monitoring capabilities of the iconic Lovell Telescope, an international team led by Jodrell Bank astronomers has been studying an object known as a repeating Fast Radio Burst (FRB), which emits very short duration bright radio pulses.
Using the 32 bursts discovered during the campaign, in conjunction with data from previously published observations, the team has discovered that emission from the FRB known as 121102 follows a cyclic pattern, with radio bursts observed in a window lasting approximately 90 days followed by a silent period of 67 days. The same behaviour then repeats every 157 days.
This discovery provides an important clue to identifying the origin of these enigmatic fast radio bursts. The presence of a regular sequence in the burst activity could imply that the powerful bursts are linked to the orbital motion of a massive star, a neutron star or a black hole.
[...] In a new paper published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the team confirm that FRB 121102 is only the second repeating source of FRBs to display such periodic activity. To their surprise, the timescale for this cycle is almost 10 times longer than the 16-day periodicity exhibited by the first repeating source, FRB 180916.J10158+56, which was recently discovered by the CHIME telescope in Canada.
Journal Reference:
Rajwade, K M, Mickaliger, M B, Stappers, B W, et al. Possible periodic activity in the repeating FRB 121102, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa1237)
Previously: A Fast Radio Burst Tracked Down to a Nearby Galaxy
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Tuesday January 07 2020, @08:21AM (2 children)
Where "nearby" translates into "redshift 0.0337 ± 0.0002" which further means "distance of 149.0 ± 0.9 Mpc".
So, in this context, "nearby" means something like 486x106 light years - something just a tad farther than down the road to the chemist.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 07 2020, @01:53PM
Ok, listen.
Space is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday January 07 2020, @04:54PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 07 2020, @11:38AM (2 children)
When we do, will they have religion?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by takyon on Tuesday January 07 2020, @01:37PM (1 child)
Reading an alien civilization's version of Wikipedia (translated into a human language) would be fascinating.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 08 2020, @01:16AM
You'll need a babel fish...