The CHIME telescope, located in British Columbia, first detected a rare heartbeat-like fast radio burst called FRB 20191221A in 2019.
File Photo courtesy of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment
July 13 (UPI) -- Astronomers have detected a fast radio burst billions of light-years from Earth that is 1,000 times longer than average and has a periodic, repeating pattern akin to a heartbeat, according to a study published Wednesday.
Scientists first discovered the radio burst -- officially dubbed FRB 20191221A -- in 2019 using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment interferometric radio telescope in British Columbia.
Daniele Michilli, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said the FRB immediately drew his attention because of how unusual it was.
Michilli first led the discovery of the FRB while as a researcher at McGill University.
"This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we've never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe," said Michilli, one of the study's co-authors. "Future telescopes promise to discover thousands of FRBs a month, and at that point we may find many more of these periodic signals."
FRBs typically last a few milliseconds, but this one lasts up to 3 seconds and includes a burst of radio waves that repeat every 0.2 seconds in a pattern similar to a heartbeat.
Researchers wrote in their study -- published Wednesday in the journal Nature -- that it is the longest-lasting FRB with the clearest periodic pattern detected to date.
The source of FRB 20191221A is several billion light-years away from Earth, though researchers aren't sure where exactly it comes from. They believe it could be either a radio pulsar or magnetar, both types of neutron stars. Neutron stars are the dense, rapidly spinning, collapsed cores of giant stars.
"There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals," Michilli said.
"Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse. And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids," Michilli said.
According to a news release from MIT, researchers hope to record more periodic signals from the source of the FRB as it moves away from Earth. Doing so could help astronomers better measure the rate at which the universe is expanding using the FRB as an astrophysical clock.
"This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we've never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe," Michilli said. "Future telescopes promise to discover thousands of FRBs a month, and at that point we may find many more of these periodic signals."
July 13 (UPI) -- Astronomers have detected a fast radio burst billions of light-years from Earth that is 1,000 times longer than average and has a periodic, repeating pattern akin to a heartbeat, according to a study published Wednesday.
Scientists first discovered the radio burst -- officially dubbed FRB 20191221A -- in 2019 using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment interferometric radio telescope in British Columbia.
Daniele Michilli, a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said the FRB immediately drew his attention because of how unusual it was.
Michilli first led the discovery of the FRB while as a researcher at McGill University.
"This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we've never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe," said Michilli, one of the study's co-authors. "Future telescopes promise to discover thousands of FRBs a month, and at that point we may find many more of these periodic signals."
FRBs typically last a few milliseconds, but this one lasts up to 3 seconds and includes a burst of radio waves that repeat every 0.2 seconds in a pattern similar to a heartbeat.
Researchers wrote in their study -- published Wednesday in the journal Nature -- that it is the longest-lasting FRB with the clearest periodic pattern detected to date.
The source of FRB 20191221A is several billion light-years away from Earth, though researchers aren't sure where exactly it comes from. They believe it could be either a radio pulsar or magnetar, both types of neutron stars. Neutron stars are the dense, rapidly spinning, collapsed cores of giant stars.
"There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals," Michilli said.
"Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse. And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids," Michilli said.
According to a news release from MIT, researchers hope to record more periodic signals from the source of the FRB as it moves away from Earth. Doing so could help astronomers better measure the rate at which the universe is expanding using the FRB as an astrophysical clock.
"This detection raises the question of what could cause this extreme signal that we've never seen before, and how can we use this signal to study the universe," Michilli said. "Future telescopes promise to discover thousands of FRBs a month, and at that point we may find many more of these periodic signals."
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