In an astounding breakthrough for science astronomers from McGill University have detected repeating Fast Radio Bursts coming from another galaxy for the first time ever on Wednesday.
The Fast Radio Bursts or FRB can emit as much energy as the Sun could in thousands of years, in a millisecond. Researchers believed until recent events took place, that fast radio bursts were caused by isolated events, including the creation of supernovas.
According to the study published in the journal Nature, the repeated pulses seemed to have emanated from well beyond of the Milky Way Galaxy. Previous studies that recorded the fast radio bursts coming from what is thought to be cosmic cataclysmic events couldn’t find any stable or similar events.
However, the source of such cosmic occurrences is based only in theories so far as no physical evidence proving the phenomenon’s origin has been submitted. While scientists have just recently discovered matching performances of an FRB, new questions are raised regarding the possibilities of what might be causing them. Fast radio bursts are considered cosmic phenomenon events that emit a high amount of energy in a fraction of a second.
The study offers more questions than answers
The findings of McGill astronomers on the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico could become an endless source of fascination as it awakens curiosity due to the phenomenon’s mystery. As the data continues to be analyzed by astronomers, they claim the repeated pulses could be produced by cataclysmic events. While the origins of the events remain unknown, scientists can’t show a correlation between the FRB’s source and the closest space clusters surrounding the Milky Way Galaxy.
Unfortunately for researchers, the thought of the repeated pulses coming from supernovas or neutron stars collapsing seems to fall short as none of these situations are coherent with multiple pulses. Apparently, the recent findings made by Peter Scholz, a graduate student at the McGill Space Institute in Montreal has given astronomers across the world a new intriguing premise to study.
One intriguing possibility for the origin of this rare occurrence could be the presence of a magnetar, according to scientists. A magnetar is described as a very exotic type of dead star that consists of a vast magnetic field, an incredible rotation speed and an immensely dense volume.
Source: The Washington Post