A Canadian-led team of astronomers, including researchers from the University of Torontos Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, has discovered that a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) originating from a nearby galaxy pulses at regular intervals.<\/p>\n
Researchers with theCanadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment(CHIME) Fast Radio Burst Collaboration used the CHIME telescope in British Columbia to show that the repeating radio source known as FRB 180916.J0158+65 first discovered in 2018 by the same group pulsates every 16.35 days.<\/p>\n
The findings, described in a studypublished recently in Nature, are the first to demonstrate that repeating FRBs can burst predictably.<\/p>\n
The finding was unexpected. We were surprised by the fact that the FRB has regular activity on the time scale of weeks, saidDongzi Li, a PhD student at Dunlap and corresponding author of the paper. Most people would expect it to be at much shorter time scales, like seconds or even milliseconds, from rotation of a compact star. Any explanation for a 16-day cycle is likely very different.<\/p>\n
FRBs were discovered over a decade ago. First thought to be singular events, astronomers have since learned that some of these high-intensity blasts of radio emissions, in fact, repeat.<\/p>\n
Though the explanation for the mysterious phenomenon is still elusive, the new study is another step towards determining what might be causing FRBs.<\/p>\n
There are suddenly lots of concrete questions to ask and to follow-up on, explains Li. If any observed properties of the bursts change regularly with the same 16.35-day period, it will tell us about the environment close to the burst.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year,astronomersin Europe, in partnership with the CHIME\/FRB Collaboration, were able to pinpoint FRB 180916 to a nearby galaxy located 500 million light years from Earth. Astronomers worldwide are now studying the source with a variety of telescopes, in the hopes of explaining the repetition.<\/p>\n
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CHIME study involving U of T astronomers finds fast radio bursts repeat 'on the time scale of weeks' - News@UofT<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A Canadian-led team of astronomers, including researchers from the University of Torontos Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, has discovered that a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) originating from a nearby galaxy pulses at regular intervals. Continue reading