Mysterious Signal Discovered in Space: ‘Like a Heartbeat’

Where the unusually fast wireless explosion comes from and what causes it so far is not clear.

An international research team has discovered a mysterious signal from a distant galaxy. This periodically “beats” like a heart.

The so-called sign of Fast Radio Burst (FRB). FRBs are fast radio bursts and are one of the biggest puzzles in space exploration. An FRB is a brief, single, or repeated burst of radio emissions.

FRB lasted 3 seconds

FRBs typically last a few milliseconds on average. The signal that was discovered in December 2019 is recalled FRB 20191221A However, it continues 3 secondsthat is, at least 1,000 times longer than an ordinary FRB.

In addition, the signal has a very reliable frequency: FRB appears every 0.2 seconds in a 3-second window. annoying Danielle Micheli From the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, these “signal peaks” are remarkably accurate and emit every millisecond: “Boom, pop, pop — like a heartbeat,” says Micheli.

The cause and origin are still not clear

Given its properties, researchers hypothesize that the signal from a neutron star It is billions of light years away. In order to get more specific answers, we hope so Team now to discover more explosions from the same source. They were not only able to determine their origin, but also their cause.

They also hope to use the FRB as a kind of “astrophysical clock” thanks to its reliable frequency. Since the burst’s frequency changes as the source moves away from Earth, the changes can be used to calculate the expansion of the universe. The current study was in nature magazine chest.

The first FRB of the Milky Way

The first FRB from the Milky Way was discovered in 2020, also from a neutron star, a magnetar. The magnetar has very intense magnetic fields, which are about 1,000 times stronger than those typically found in neutron stars. It is estimated that 10 percent of all neutron stars are magnetars.