I think there will be tens of thousands observed in different galaxies within a couple of years.” “This is only the very, very beginning for FRB science. “To see a quick burst like this, you have to happen to have your telescope looking in the right direction at the right time – there’s no end of luck involved,” she says. “Even if these are all coming from magnetars, there are multiple different ways a magnetar could produce this radiation and hopefully this will help us start to arbitrate between them,” says Metzger.Īstronomers will be watching the other known magnetars in our galaxy for more flares, says Weltman. This single burst won’t enable us to answer the question of whether there are many types of objects that make FRBs, but it may help us understand the nitty-gritty of one type. Plus, the few FRBs that have been traced back to their host galaxies seem to reside in a variety of environments. There have been hints that there are different kinds of FRB: some seem to repeat, bursting again and again, while others may only flash once. “When we talk about FRBs, we say it like it’s an object, but they’re not objects, they’re bursts, and I think that we will be able to see these bursts from a whole host of other kinds of objects beyond just magnetars,” says Amanda Weltman at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. However, it is also possible that not all FRBs come from magnetars. Read more: Fast radio bursts: We’re finally decoding messages from deep space While magnetars have been a favoured contender to explain FRBs, this is the first evidence that they can produce radio waves at high enough energies to account for the signals.
Several teams of researchers examined the area where it arose and found that the burst originated from a magnetar called SGR 1935+2154. In April, astronomers found an FRB coming from within our own galaxy for the first time, allowing them to take a closer look. Some FRBs have been tracked back to their host galaxies, but their source hasn’t been pinpointed. However, because they tend to come from so far away, there was never enough evidence to determine what exactly was making them. Since the first one was discovered in 2007, many explanations for them have been put forward. The burst came from a magnetar, which is a neutron star with a strong magnetic field.įast radio bursts, or FRBs, are incredibly powerful flashes of radio waves that mostly come from distant galaxies. Illustration of a magnetar’s magnetic fields and a burst of radiationįor the first time, we have tracked a strange blast of radio waves – called a fast radio burst – back to its source, solving a major cosmic mystery.