Astronomers Detect a Fast Radio Burst , With a 'Heartbeat' Pattern , From a Distant Galaxy.
CNN reports that a mysterious radio burst, named FRB 20191221A, has been detected by astronomers.
The signal lasted for up to three seconds, which is approximately 1,000 times longer than typical fast radio bursts (FRBs).
It was also the first time astronomers have encountered, a periodic signal.
FRB 20191221A has a pattern similar to a heartbeat.
Not only was it very long, lasting about three seconds, but there were periodic peaks that were remarkably precise, emitting every fraction of a second — boom, boom, boom — like a heartbeat, Daniele Michilli, postdoctoral researcher in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, via CNN.
According to the team at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, the signal offers clues about its origins and what may have caused it.
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According to the researchers, the signal was similar to emissions released by a neutron star, specifically either a radio pulsar or a magnetar.
However, this signal also appears over one million times brighter than previous observations of those types of neutron stars.
We think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids, Daniele Michilli, postdoctoral researcher in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, via CNN.
This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we've never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe, Daniele Michilli, postdoctoral researcher in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, via CNN.
On July 13, a study detailing the findings was published in the journal 'Nature.'
