These bright powerful streams of energy remain largely a mystery to astronomers, but something is still known about them.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are strong radio pulses that carry as much energy as the Sun emits in three days. But FRBs radiate this energy in just a fraction of a second. What is known and what is still unknown about the FRB by scientists? Writes about it Space.
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FRBs come to us from all corners of the universe and these radio pulses have a frequency of approximately 1400 hertz, although some have a frequency of 400 to 800 hertz. Due to the fact that these bursts of energy last only a fraction of a second, they are very difficult to detect. Therefore, scientists still do not know much about these strange signals from space.
What are fast radio bursts?
This is a bright and short burst of electromagnetic radiation that is observed in radio waves. They usually last thousandths of a second. Some of them recur, but the vast majority happen once and disappear forever.
What causes fast radio bursts?
Scientists do not know exactly what causes the appearance of FRBs, but it is assumed that their sources can be neutron stars with the strongest magnetic field – magnetars. The magnetic fields of magnetars can be a thousand trillion times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field.
FRBs can also cause collisions between two neutron stars or two white dwarf stars. Both those and others are the remnants of ordinary stars that have already died. Astronomers also speculate that FRB sources could be the catastrophic death of neutron stars when they turn into a black hole and even the collision of galaxies.
Scientists do not know exactly what causes the appearance of FRBs, but it is assumed that neutron stars with the strongest magnetic field – magnetars can be their sources.
Photo: ESO
How powerful can fast radio bursts be?
They have a lot of energy, because in a millisecond some FRBs can radiate as much energy as the Sun radiates in three Earth days. Since they appear billions of light-years from Earth, when they reach our planet they become less powerful.
When were fast radio bursts first discovered?
Astronomers first discovered the FRB in 2007, but it turned out that a stream of energy escaped from the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, 6 years earlier. The first fast radio burst was named FRB 010724 (FRB is the abbreviation for the name of these radio pulses in English). It lasted only 5 milliseconds and never happened again. A second FRB called FRB 010621 was discovered in 2011, and it also appeared once and disappeared.
Astronomers first discovered the FRB in 2007, but it turned out that a stream of energy escaped from the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud, 6 years before.
Photo: The Conversation
In 2012, astronomers discovered the first repeating FRB, which was named FRB 121102. It arrived from a galaxy 3 billion light years away and repeated several times.
The most distant known FRB was discovered in 2022, and it came to us from a galaxy 13 billion light-years away. One of the closest FRBs to us was discovered in 2020. It came from the Milky Way and its source was 30,000 light-years away from Earth. This energy event lasted only 1.5 seconds.
The longest FRB known to date is FRB 20191221A, discovered in 2019, and it lasted a full 3 seconds, which is about 1000 times longer than the duration of most FRBs.
Repeating fast radio bursts
To date, scientists have recorded more than a thousand FDD, but the vast majority of them do not repeat. Now astronomers have identified only 50 such repetitive energy radio pulses.
Focus already wrote that scientists in their study substantiated the idea that FRBs can nevertheless arise precisely as a result of the collision of neutron stars. These stars are the densest objects in space after black holes, although they are the size of a small city.
