An object stuck in a dwarf galaxy explodes thousands of times.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, LAS VEGAS — Astronomers witnessed a mysterious celestial body that fired 1,652 bursts of energy in a short period of time. Mysterious radio burst or fast radio burst (FRB), is a mysterious phenomenon that was first observed in 2007.
FRBs produce pulses in the radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This pulse lasts only a few thousandths of a second but produces as much energy as the sun in a year.
Some FRBs emit energy only once. However some objects emit repeatedly. This is also what was observed in an object called FRB 121102, located in a dwarf galaxy 3 billion light years away. This galaxy is known to explode repeatedly.
Using the Five-hundred-meter Spherical Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in China, the team of scientists decided to conduct an extensive study of these repeating FRBs.
“The study was intended only to collect routine data about this particular entity. At first it was just collecting signs,” said Bing Zhang, an astrophysicist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Live Science, Wednesday (3/11).
Most FRBs occur in the distant universe, which makes them difficult to study. However, in 2020, astronomers discovered an FRB within the Milky Way galaxy that allowed scientists to determine that the source was a type of dead star called a magnetar.
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