Astronomers have identified the initial fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed to come from within our own Milky Way galaxy.

The magnetar SGR 1935+2154 in the Milky Way could have just offered astronomers the breakthrough that they have needed to solve one of the biggest cosmic conundrums with powerful radio signals from deep space.

Some global radio observatories registered an interesting occurrence from this cold stellar corpse on April 28, 2020, and it is located about 30,000 light years from Earth. It emitted a single millisecond burst of radio waves, the kind which could have been registered from another galaxy if it occurred.

Also, space and ground based X-ray observatories observed a very bright X-ray flare which is associated with this event.

Scientists are now focusing on delicately studying the large quantity of data received from this phenomenon. But it is still under-researched and is in its initial phase of exploration. However, it has been suggested by many specialists that this may be capable of revealing the genuine origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs).

Shrinivas Kulkarni an astronomer from California Institute of Technology, CALTECH who is part of the STARE2 survey that first detected the radio signal said to ScienceAlert “This discovery pretty much says that FRBs indeed come from magnetars. ”

The sources of fast radio bursts are still amongst the biggest unsolved questions in the universe. These are extremely powerful radio signals from galaxies millions of light years out in the universe with some of them releasing energy equivalent to 500 million Suns. However, they last less than a millisecond and the majority of them do not repeat; thus it becomes very difficult to predict, monitor, and analyze.

As for the possible causes, the supernovae, extraterrestrial intelligence (which is rather far-fetched) have been mentioned. However, the hypothesis that magnetars are involved in the production of FRBs has received a lot of attention in recent years.

This type of neutron star is of an exceptionally unique variety as it is composed of a dense core, left over after a large star has undergone a supernova explosion. These neutron stars, often called magnetars, have magnetic fields stronger than the usual neutron stars – 1,000 times stronger to be precise. Researchers are yet to pinpoint how such strong magnetic fields are generated, nevertheless, the phenomenon has a profound effect on the star.

The strength of the magnetic field becomes so big that such stars are distorted in their shapes and pull inward due to the force of gravity, which would otherwise compress them very tightly. Thisnex reaction provokes constant fluctuations between the two forces and, according to Kulkarni, it causesperiodic starquakes and giant flares from the magnetar.

Respecting the date of the middle of April 2020, several instruments including the Swift Burst Alert Telescope, the AGILE satellite, and the NICER ISS payload identified and analyzed SGR 1935+2154. At first, it seemed to be a typical magnetar as it had signaled like all other magnetars observed.

However, an extraordinary event by the CHIME telescope, situated in Canada and constructed to look for short-term astrophysical phenomena that occur in space, and time, occurred on April 28. Even the detector instrument used to monitor the signal could identify that the signal produced by SGR 1935+2154 was enormously strong. Astronomers have discovered a planet that orbits in the wrong direction and broke the news through The Astronomer’s Telegram.

In response to this, Christopher Bochenek, a graduate student from Caltech, has designed the survey known as STARE2, which has been specifically aimed at FRBs near our solar system. This survey uses three radio antennas deployed in MWO with dipoles spaced hundreds of kilometers, thus avoiding contamination by nearby signals.

Indeed, the signal from SGR 1935+2154 was successfully detected by the STARE2 survey, and it had a fluence of more than one million Jansky milliseconds, making it possible to observe this anomaly in the burst as particularly clear and discernible. Consequently, the signal strength of the majority of extragalactic FRSs is recorded as a few tens of jansky millisecond. Nevertheless, if one adapts the various parameters to distance SGR 1935+2154 is relatively weak having a peculiar FRB power of a few μJy/Mpc, Kulkarni pointed out that it is as expected.

He said to ScienceAlert that if a similar signal from a galaxy is received, like one of the nearby usual FRB galaxies, then it looks like an FRB to us. This is something that has never been experienced before.

Further, we also observe the X-ray counterpart which has never been seen in extragalactic fast radio backgrounds. Such events are rather observed during the emission of magnetars. However, X-ray and gamma radiation emitted by these stars is considerably more often than radio one.

Sandro Mereghetti, an astronomer working at the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics and scientist in charge of the INTEGRAL mission of the European Space Agency, further stated that the X-ray emission detected following the outburst of SGR 1935+2154 is not particularly bright and does not appear to be rare. However, it does hint at the fact that there is potentially a vast amount more to FRBs than we are currently capable of observing.

According to Mereghetti quoted in ScienceAlert, the author infers that this is a very interesting result in supporting the link between FRBs and magnetars.

All the FRBs that have been found to date are extrasolar, and none of them has ever been observed in gamma or X-ray range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Were an X-ray burst of the same luminosity as SGR1935 to occur in an extragalactic source, it would be undetected.

However, the radio signal cannot be dismissed. In addition, Kulkarni also mentions, a magnetar could produce even more powerful outbursts. In the case of SGR 1935+2154, although the burst did not require much energy it could easily handle a burst a thousand times more than it did.

This, without a doubt, is quite encouraging. But one should not overlook the fact that at the current stage we are only at the beginning of realizing these phenomena. The star has been discovered using some of the best instruments that are available to astronomers who are still conducting follow up observations on the star.

Furthermore, the spectral examination of the burst in order to exclude quick extragalactic radio bursts is still to come. If ever there is lack of similarity, then it means that we have to go back to the basics of our analysis.

Nevertheless, it has to be mentioned that SGR 1935+2154 is not the only source of rapid radio bursts even if we establish the link between them and magnetars. Some of the signals have irregular patterns where they repeat at the most unlikely time. Recently, it was discovered that one source was taken every 16 days at that particular place.

Regardless of what SGR 1935+2154 reveals, it is a major improvement and we have much further to go in finding the complex mystery in these special signals.

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