Washington: In a groundbreaking discovery, NASA scientists have uncovered the source of intense radio events in space, known as ‘fast radio bursts’ (FRBs), long shrouded in mystery. Shedding light on this cosmic phenomenon, NASA’s two X-ray telescopes captured a cataclysmic event where a dead star exploded in radio waves, emitting energy equivalent to the Sun’s year-long output in just a second. Remarkably, this explosion emitted laser-like beams of light, adding to its intrigue.
Published in the esteemed scientific journal Nature, the paper titled “Rapid spin changes around a magnetar fast radio burst” presents detailed observations of this cosmic spectacle. Prior to this breakthrough, the origin of FRBs, brief yet intense bursts originating outside our galaxy, had baffled scientists. However, in 2020, a pivotal discovery revealed that a collapsed star, a magnetar, within our galaxy emitted similar bursts.
In October 2022, the same magnetar, dubbed SGR 1935+2154, unleashed another FRB, offering NASA researchers a unique opportunity to study it in-depth. Utilizing the NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer) on the International Space Station and NuSTAR (Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array) in low Earth orbit, scientists meticulously documented the magnetar’s behavior before and after the burst.
Chin-Ping Hu, the study’s lead author, noted, “Typically when glitches happen, it takes the magnetar weeks or months to get back to its normal speed. So clearly things are happening with these objects on much shorter time scales than we previously thought, and that might be related to how fast radio bursts are generated.”
Despite these significant strides, the exact trigger of FRBs remains elusive. George Younes, a member of the NICER science team specializing in magnetars, emphasized the need for additional data, stating, “We’ve unquestionably observed something important for our understanding of fast radio bursts, but I think we still need a lot more data to complete the mystery.”
