Astronomers trace the origin of mysterious and powerful radio signals to three distant galaxies News from Mexico

Washington, USA.- Astronomers have discovered one of the most powerful and far-flung fast radio bursts ever seen of its unusual cosmic origin: a peculiar cluster of “blob”-shaped galaxies.

This The unexpected discovery could provide further insight into the reasons behind the mysterious bursts of radio waves That has puzzled scientists for years.

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According to information from CNN, the The powerful signal, known as FRB 20220610A, was first identified on June 10, 2022. And traveled a distance of 8 billion light years to reach Earth. A light year represents the distance that light travels in one year, which is equivalent to 9.46 billion kilometers (5.88 billion miles).

This Fast Radio Bursts (FRB)) are brief, sharp bursts of radio waves, lasting milliseconds and still of unknown origin. The first FRB was identified in 2007, and since then hundreds of these transient cosmic flashes have been observed from distant points in the universe.

The signal lasted less than a millisecond

This particular fast radio burst Lasted less than a millisecond, but was four times more energetic than previously detected FRBs.. According to a preliminary study published in October, the explosion released the equivalent of our Sun’s energy output over 30 years.

Many FRBs emit super-bright radio waves that last at least a few milliseconds before disappearing, making them difficult to observe.

This Radio telescopes have proven useful for tracking the path of fast cosmic flashesSo researchers used the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder, or ASKAP, a radio telescope in Western Australia and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile, to determine where the mysterious explosion originated.

This OThe observations led scientists to a vast space, which was initially thought to be an irregular galaxy or a cluster of three interacting galaxies.

Now, the Astronomers used images from the Hubble Space Telescope to discover that the fast radio burst came from a group of at least seven galaxies close enough that they all fit inside the Milky Way.

The findings were presented on Tuesday in the 243rd meeting of American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.

An unusual galactic group

This The galaxies in the group appear to be interacting and may even be in the process of mergingAccording to the researchers, that could trigger a fast radio burst.

“Without Hubble images, it will remain a mystery whether this FRB originated in a monolithic galaxy or in some kind of interacting system,” he said in a statement. Alexa Gordon, lead author of the study

and doctoral student in astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.

“It’s these kinds of environments—these strange environments—that push us toward a better understanding of the FRB’s mystery.”

The galactic group, known as a compact group, is unusual and “an example of the densest galaxy-scale structures we know of,” said the study’s co-author. Wen-Fai Fong, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern and Gordon’s doctoral dissertation supervisor.

As galaxies interact, they can trigger a burst of star formationThat could be related to the explosion, Gordon said.

Fast radio bursts have been detected mainly in separate galaxiesBut astronomers have also found them in globular clusters and, now, in compact groups, Gordon explains.

“We need to continue to find more of these kinds of FRBs, near and far and in all these kinds of environments,” he said.

They investigate the origin of fast radio bursts

have been discovered There have been about a thousand fast radio explosions since their initial discovery nearly two decades agoBut astronomers are still unclear about what causes them.

However, many agree that they are likely due to compact objects, such as Black holes or neutron stars, Dense remnants of exploded stars. According to recent research, magnetars, or highly magnetic stars, may be the cause of rapid radio bursts.

Understanding the origins of fast radio bursts can help astronomers better determine the underlying cause of what sets them off across the universe.

“Although hundreds of FRB events have been detected to date, only a fraction of them have been identified with their host galaxies,” study co-author Yuxin Vic Dong said in a statement. “Of that small fraction, only a few came from the dense galactic atmosphere, but none had ever been observed in such a compact group. So, their birthplace is rare indeed.” Dong is a National Science Foundation graduate researcher and doctoral student in astronomy in Fong’s lab at Northwestern.

a Further knowledge of fast radio bursts may also lead to revelations about the nature of the universe. As the explosions travel through space for billions of years, they interact with cosmic material

“Radio waves, in particular, are sensitive to any interfering material in the line of sight to us from the FRB location,” Dong said. “That means the waves have to travel through any cloud of material around the FRB site, through its host galaxy, through the Universe, and finally through the Milky Way. By delaying the FRB signal itself, we can measure the sum of all these contributions“

This Astronomers envision increasingly sensitive methods for detecting fast radio bursts in the future, which could lead to finding them at greater distances.Gordon noted.

“Ultimately, we are trying to answer the questions: What is the cause? Who are their parents and what are their origins? “The Hubble observations provide a stunning view of the surprising types of atmospheres that give rise to these mysterious phenomena,” said Fong.

Source: X @CNNEE