| Title | Dead Star Emits Never-Before Seen Mix of Radiation | |
| Date | Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:31PM | |
| Author | Fnord666 | |
| Topic | ||
| 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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printed from SoylentNews, Dead Star Emits Never-Before Seen Mix of Radiation on 2024-05-17 01:49:53