Russian astronomers capture mysterious deep-space radio burst
Russian astronomers, using the Large Phased Array (LPA) radio telescope, detected a bright pulse at 111 MHz. They described their observations in a scientific article published on the electronic scientific preprint archive arXiv. They explain that the mysterious signal is likely a so-called extragalactic fast radio burst.
A team of Russian astronomers, as part of the Pushchino Multibeams Pulsar Search (PUMPS) project, using the Large Phased Array (LPA) radio telescope located in Pushchino, Russia, detected an interesting signal in space. It is most likely one of the so-called fast radio bursts (FRB), also known as extragalactic fast radio signals.
Mysterious signals from space
Fast radio bursts are very short, intense bursts of radio waves originating from space. They last just a few milliseconds, but in that time, they can release as much energy as the Sun produces over several days. FRBs are one of the biggest mysteries of modern astrophysics, as their exact origin and the mechanism generating these signals are not fully understood. Most FRBs are detected as one-time events, although there are also so-called repeating FRBs that emit bursts multiple times from the same source.
According to the Phys service, the FRB 20190203 signal noticed by the Russians lasted 211 milliseconds, and its dispersion measure suggested an extragalactic origin. Moreover, the signal was said to come from about 2.3 billion light-years. According to Russian astronomers, the properties of FRB 20190203 indicate that it is one of the most powerful fast radio bursts. Additionally, it is the first burst discovered within the PUMPS project and the second fast radio burst detected at such a low frequency (111 MHz).
Astronomers believe that the source of the signal is most likely related to synchrotron radiation from young magnetars. As explained by the European Southern Observatory, magnetars are strange, super-dense remnants of a supernova explosion with a very strong magnetic field. They are often called the strongest magnets in the universe. Their power is a million times greater than the magnets found on Earth. Magnetars can generate radio pulses during specific magnetic activities.
