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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the intriguing-correlation dept.

Dead star emits never-before seen mix of radiation:

A global collaboration of telescopes including ESA's Integral high-energy space observatory has detected a unique mix of radiation bursting from a dead star in our galaxy — something that has never been seen before in this type of star, and may solve a long-standing cosmic mystery.

The finding involves two kinds of interesting cosmic phenomena: magnetars and Fast Radio Bursts. Magnetars are stellar remnants with some of the most intense magnetic fields in the Universe. When they become 'active', they can produce short bursts of high-energy radiation that typically last for not even a second but are billions of times more luminous than the Sun.

Fast Radio Bursts are one of astronomy's major unsolved mysteries. First discovered in 2007, these events pulse brightly in radio waves for just a few milliseconds before fading away, and are only rarely seen again. Their true nature remains unknown, and no such burst has ever been observed either within the Milky Way, with a known origin, or emitting any other kind of radiation beyond the radio wave domain — until now.

In late April, SGR 1935+2154, a magnetar discovered six years ago in the constellation of Vulpecula, following a substantial burst of X-rays, became active again. Soon after, astronomers spied something astonishing: this magnetar was not only radiating its usual X-rays, but radio waves, too.

"We detected the magnetar's burst of high-energy, or 'hard', X-rays using Integral on 28 April," says Sandro Mereghetti of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF–IASF) in Milan, Italy, lead author of a new study of this source based on the Integral data.

[...] "This is the first ever observational connection between magnetars and Fast Radio Bursts," explains Sandro.

"It truly is a major discovery, and helps to bring the origin of these mysterious phenomena into focus."

This connection strongly supports the idea that Fast Radio Bursts emanate from magnetars, and demonstrates that bursts from these highly magnetised objects can also be spotted at radio wavelengths. Magnetars are increasingly popular with astronomers, as they are thought to play a key role in driving a number of different transient events in the Universe, from super-luminous supernova explosions to distant and energetic gamma-ray bursts.

Journal Reference:
S. Mereghetti, et. al., INTEGRAL Discovery of a Burst with Associated Radio Emission from the Magnetar SGR 1935+2154 - IOPscience, The Astrophysical Journal Letters (DOI: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aba2cf)


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  • (Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:17PM (4 children)

    by looorg (578) on Wednesday July 29 2020, @03:17PM (#1028136)

    Please for the love of God call/name it Deathstar Radiation ...

    • (Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:20PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:20PM (#1028160)

      In the 1940s they didnt even wear masks when next to dead alien bodies: https://i.redd.it/xcn17mfrksd51.jpg [i.redd.it]

      • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:26PM (1 child)

        by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:26PM (#1028162) Journal

        In the 1940s, the aliens told researchers that wearing masks is unsafe and wouldn't protect them.

        In 2020 the aliens told Stella Immanuel, who told Trump, who told Fox News, who should have known better than to tell everyone.

        --
        People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @05:26PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @05:26PM (#1028187)

          The trick is to wear a valved mask inside out so you breath in fresh air but dont breath out onto people.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:28PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:28PM (#1028164) Journal

      Never before seen? Maybe they are trying to communicate differently. Thinking how stupid could a race be to not have detected the modulated signals in FRBs? Haven't they discovered this modulation technique yet?

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:34PM (2 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday July 29 2020, @04:34PM (#1028166) Journal

    Magnetars are increasingly popular with astronomers, as they are thought to play a key role in driving a number of different transient events in the Universe, from super-luminous supernova explosions to distant and energetic gamma-ray bursts.

    Do they mean a magnetar causes something else, some other star, to become a supernova? Aren't GRBs from supernova?

    Or do they mean when a star collapses it becomes a magnetar on the way to becoming a supernova? Or is the magnetar stage after the supernova event?

    Or does this mean something else?

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:44PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2020, @07:44PM (#1028254)

      They mean that a number of transcient events (fast radio bursts, X-ray bursts, gamma ray bursts, etc) could possibly all be originating from magnetars, caused by different mecanisms.

    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:57AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 30 2020, @01:57AM (#1028424) Journal

      from super-luminous supernova explosions

      Apparently, the idea here is that the magnetar dumps energy into the gas shed in the supernova making it even brighter than it would normally be.

  • (Score: 2) by Rupert Pupnick on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:39PM

    by Rupert Pupnick (7277) on Wednesday July 29 2020, @11:39PM (#1028364) Journal

    You can have my stellar radiation when you pry it out of my cold dead gravity well.

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