Astronomers Discover 25 Repeated Super-Energetic Cosmic Explosions or Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)

TORONTO – Astronomers were surprised to find 25 explosion recurring super energetic cosmic bursts or what are commonly called fast radio bursts (FRBs). Despite this extraordinary power, the origins of the FRB still remain mysterious .

In a new study, a team led by astronomers from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)/FRB Collaboration and the University of Toronto found 25 recurrent super-energetic cosmic explosions, bringing the known total to 50. This incident may lead scientists to discover what causes these bursts.

In addition, it shows that more super-energetic cosmic explosions can repeat than previously thought. Astronomers have found many FRBs over the past decade, but most of them are non-repeating and have only seen a single outburst.

Only a small part is seen repeating. This has led astronomers to question whether repeating and non-repeating FRBs originate from the same source.

The key to confirming this is the discovery of repeatable FRBs, which the team involved in this study did by developing a new set of statistical tools. Including combing through the data to analyze every repeat FRB it’s ever seen.

“We can now accurately calculate the probability that two or more bursts coming from the same location were not just a coincidence,” said study team member Ziggy Pleunis, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics. (27/4/2023).

Radio telescopes such as CHIME, located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory, near Penticton, Canada, have become an integral part of FRB detection. In recent years, observations have gone from tens to thousands of cosmic explosions.

“That’s how CHIME has an advantage over other telescopes when it comes to finding FRBs,” Pleunis said. One surprising aspect of the new research was the discovery that many of the repeating FRBs turned out to be inactive, producing less than one burst per week during the time of the CHIME observations.

Pleunis believes that this may be because this FRB has not been observed long enough to see a second outburst. FRB replay is especially useful to astronomers because it gives astronomers the opportunity to observe the same source of FRB with a telescope other than the telescope that saw it first, allowing these mysterious events to be seen in finer detail.

“FRBs were likely generated by the remnants of a death star’s explosion. By studying the sources of repeated FRBs in detail, we can study the environments in which these outbursts occur and better understand the late stages of a star’s life,” said Pleunis.

(wib)