A rarely seen precursor to a supernova captured by the James Webb Space Telescope
The hot, bright star Wolf-Rayet 124 (WR 124) appears at the center of the composite image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, combining near-infrared and mid-infrared wavelengths from the Webb Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument.
A team of astronomers say they have discovered a never-before-heard radio signal that offers insight into the mystery of the unknown of deep space.
This signal is known as a fast radio burst (FRB), a bright flash of radio light that lasts a few milliseconds and comes from outside the Milky Way.
Some fast radio bursts repeat themselves, a new study has been published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical SocietyYou have shed a new light. The study discovered a highly active repeating FRB signal that behaves differently than anything previously discovered.
“This work is exciting because it provides confirmation of known FRB properties and the discovery of some new ones,” said Sophia Shaikh, lead author of the study. City Institute In california.
Animation of detection plots for 35 FRBs, shown in chronological order. A gradual shift towards the bottom of the observation window can be seen in the dispersive frequency versus time plot (top reddish subplot). (Sophia Z. Shaikh/SETI Institute)
Over the course of two months, Sheikh and other scientists observed 35 fast radio bursts from a single source, FRB 20220912A. They discovered a fascinating pattern emerging from their observations.
According to astronomers, the pitch of most recurring fast radio bursts gradually decreases as they continue. However, FRB 20220912A is different. It has an unprecedented change in pitch that sounds like a cosmic gliding whistle that can be heard when converting data into an audio clip using a xylophone.
Click here to listen to this mysterious audio
Dynamic spectra (or “cascade” diagrams) of all bursts from FRB 20220912A were discovered using the Allen Telescope array, frequency-averaged pulsation profiles, and time-averaged spectra. (Sophia Z. Shaikh/SETI Institute/FOX Weather)
High-pitched notes are at the beginning of a syllable, while low-pitched notes are at the end, like someone playing a xylophone repeatedly hitting the lowest note, scientists at the SETI Institute reported.
Astronomers believe that some fast radio bursts are caused by a type of neutron star called a magnetar. These neutron stars have very strong magnetic fields and are the cores of dead stars.
“We are narrowing down the source of fast radio bursts, for example, to extreme objects such as magnetars, but there is no existing model that can explain all the properties observed so far,” Sheikh said.
Other ideas suggest that fast radio bursts could also be produced by neutron star collisions or white dwarf mergers.
Sheikh said that the latest research represents another step forward in the quest to uncover the secrets of fast radio bursts, which generate an amount of energy in a fraction of a thousandth of a second equivalent to what our sun generates in an entire year.
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