China’s FAST telescope deepens mystery over cosmic blasts known as fast radio bursts
- Observations from the telescope in Guizhou province threaten to upend scientists’ understanding of the powerful flashes from deep space
- Researchers found a fast radio burst in a different galaxy that did not behave as expected and in a place it should not have been
China’s FAST telescope has deepened the mystery surrounding the origin and nature of cosmic explosions known as fast radio bursts after detecting features that cannot be explained by existing physical models.
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are powerful flashes of radio waves from deep space that only last for milliseconds, but they generate as much energy as the Sun does in a year.
The first fast radio burst was discovered in 2007, and since then, hundreds of these cosmic flashes have been detected. However, their origin and physical nature remain unclear.
Previous studies have suggested that the first fast radio burst detected from the Milky Way had originated from a magnetar, which is a highly magnetic neutron star.
But recent observations by Chinese and American scientists have challenged the prevailing understanding of their origin and physical nature.
“These observations brought us back to the drawing board,” Zhang Bing, an astrophysicist with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said in a statement.
“It is clear that FRBs are more mysterious than we have imagined. More multi-wavelength observational campaigns are needed to further unveil the nature of these objects.”
The observations were made between April and June last year using the massive FAST telescope in the southwestern province of Guizhou. The team was led by scientists from Peking University and the National Astronomical Observatories of China.