To date, researchers have achieved the most accurate time estimates related to the mystery of the so-called “rapid radio bursts” (FRBs), which are sudden pulses from distant cosmic worlds that usually occur in strange patterns, and thus the wildest theories from ear interaction. with stars to the strange life.
An international team of astronomers looked at a repetitive fast-moving short-range radio burst, commonly referred to as the abbreviation FRB, and revealed the “microstructure”, or pattern of variable brightness, according to a study published in Nature Astronomy.
The newly applied technique in probe, in which the team led by Kenzie Nimmo, a PhD student at the Anton Pancake Institute of Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam, studied the signature of the burst at extremely short periods within its millisecond long pulse has, revealed clues in [FRB] emission techniques “, says the newspaper.
The researchers managed to obtain this “high-resolution” data on FRB 180916, a formidable repeating radio pulse operating on a 16-day cycle, from the European Very Long Basic Interferometry Network, which consists of advanced telescopes based on four continents.
“The microstructure to which we in the [study’s] the title is that we see how the brightness of the burst varies on microsecond time scales, Nimmo said in an email to Vice, adding that these brief repetitive fluctuations in brightness greatly limit the size of the FRB emission range. , which is estimated to extend over one kilometer (0.62 miles).
In other words, the technique of examining FRBs on very short time scales provides an insight into the physical space around the enigmatic source of these radio pulses, which lies 457 million light-years from our planet in a completely different galaxy.
Although the distance is relatively close compared to other similar eruptions, it is extraordinary how the team of Nimmo managed to capture the details at an intergalactic distance.
With this high resolution, the researcher can reach the “polarization position angle” (PPA), or the angle at which the volcano’s polarized light swings back and forth. This estimate is important to find out details about the rotation of the FRB source, and how close the radio emission takes place to the source, which in turn may indicate its possible identity.
Based on their study, the researchers believe “the most compelling progenitor model for FRBs” are neutron stars – according to Nimmo, they are extremely dense (super-heavy but relatively small) dead stars.
It is understood that neutron stars are volatile and are capable of seeing the kind of extreme radio bursts that occur in FRBs. For example, a weak radio eruption that took place in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, was related to a special kind of strongly magnetized neutron star, about 30,000 light-years from Earth.
© Photo: © National Science Foundation / LIGO / Sonoma State University / A. Simonnet
Artist’s version of a fusion with a binary neutron star.
Some models of FRBs suggest that their radio pulses can be traced back to the near vicinity of a star, namely the magnetosphere, while others suggest that the emission is due to a shock wave occurring from the source, Nimmo said. The new high-resolution study supports the former scenario in which the emission appears in the immediate vicinity of the neutron star, the article shows.
The recurring periodicity of FRB 180916, for its part, suggests that it may arise in a binary system consisting of a rotating neutron star and a massive star that shares a 16-day orbital period. When these objects are closest during an orbit, they seem to alternate with each other. The latter process strengthens the bursts, causing the 16-day burst, causing it to actively burst for four days and rest for the next twelve days, the study reads.