In The News: Department of Physics and Astronomy
From ultra high speed levitating trains to lifesaving MRI machines, superconductors are key to some of the world’s most cutting edge technology. But they require extremely low temperatures to work and have remained too expensive for everyday use. Now that could be about to change. With superconductors that work at room temperature, our technological ability is posed to make a giant leap forward.
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs - powerful, millisecond-duration radio waves coming from deep space outside the Milky Way Galaxy - have been among the most mysterious astronomical phenomena ever observed. Since FRBs were first discovered in 2007, astronomers from around the world have used radio telescopes to trace the bursts and look for clues on where they come from and how they're produced.
Magnetars, short for “magnetic stars,” are ultra-dense corpses of dead stars surrounded by intense magnetic fields. And according to new research, magnetars also appear to be the cause of at least some mysterious fast radio bursts, or FRBs, which astronomers have detected for more than a decade. So, by studying FRBs, scientists think they might be able to peel back the onion on magnetars.
For more than 13 years, astronomers have been trying to determine the source of extremely powerful radio bursts that can travel billions of kilometres through space but only last a fraction of a second.
For the first time ever, astronomers have linked an actual object to those mysterious radio bursts they’ve been detecting since 2007. The culprit in this case, as suspected, is a super-dense object known as a magnetar, but the finding has prompted an entirely new set of questions.
For around a decade, mysterious flashes from deep space have puzzled radio astronomers. The explosions of radio waves last for just a few thousandths of a second, and they appear to shine from galaxies billions of light years away—too far to get a good look at what’s making them. Researchers have detected about 120 such “Fast Radio Bursts” to date, and have come up with nearly half as many explanations. Theorists have floated ideas including exotic stars collapsing, neutron stars crashing into black holes, and even alien civilizations pushing starships around on energy beams.
Mysterious superpowerful blasts of radio waves once seen only outside the galaxy have for the first time been detected within the Milky Way, new studies find.
For the first time ever, astronomers have detected a burst of radio waves from within our own galaxy — and traced the powerful signal to a young neutron star known as a magnetar, according to a report.
Three new studies trace the burst to a bizarre "magnetic star"—and help solve a major astronomical puzzle.
For more than a decade, astronomers have been puzzled by energetic and unexplained bursts of radio light, observed in other galaxies, that flash for a fraction of a second and then mysteriously disappear. The sources of these fast radio bursts (FRBs), as they’re known, is one of the most tantalizing open questions in astronomy.
For the first time, we have tracked a strange blast of radio waves – called a fast radio burst – back to its source, solving a major cosmic mystery. The burst came from a magnetar, which is a neutron star with a strong magnetic field.
For the first time, astrophysicists have pieced together observational evidence of a fast radio burst that likely traveled to Earth from a particular type of neutron star in our Milky Way galaxy, according to three studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature.