Scientists have detected bizarre ultra-powerful blasts of radio energy inside our own galaxy for the first time. Known as 'FRBs' or 'fast radio bursts', these powerful blasts can emit forces that are 100 million times more powerful than our own Sun. However, scientists are unsure as to where they actually originate from. The fact that these recent blasts have been found inside our own galaxy, the Milky Way, has given hope that the true origin of the mysterious phenomena can now be ascertained.
Not only have all previously detected FRBs been in other galaxies, but the fact that they last for such a short time makes them hard to track down and study. While no one is exactly sure what creates FRBs, the most prominent theory is that they are caused by 'magnetars', stars with an extremely powerful magnetic field. FRBs themselves were only discovered in 2007 and therefore knowledge of them is fairly limited.
Kiyoshi Masui, who is an assistant professor of physics at MIT and who was involved in this research, said:
"There's this great mystery as to what would produce these great outbursts of energy, which until now we've seen coming from halfway across the universe. This is the first time we've been able to tie one of these exotic fast radio bursts to a single astrophysical object."
The current research that spotted the radio bursts within the Milky Way was designed to discover whether Magnetars were indeed responsible for FRBs. The strategy put forward by the researchers was to explore tiny areas of the sky where large objects, such as magnetars, are located and see if they correlated with FRB activity. It appears thus far that the data is backing up that theory.
Pragya Chawla, a PhD student in the Physics Department at McGill who was involved in the project said of the findings:
"We calculated that such an intense burst coming from another galaxy would be indistinguishable from some fast radio bursts, so this really gives weight to the theory suggesting that magnetars could be behind at least some FRBs."
Paul Scholz, a scientist from the University of Toronto, did though state that the evidence was as of yet not entirely conclusive and that the findings did not explain all FRB activity. He added:
"Given the large gaps in energetics and activity between the brightest and most active FRB sources and what is observed for magnetars, perhaps younger, more energetic and active magnetars are needed to explain all FRB observations."
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