Source:

Over 1,500 cosmic explosions have been detected by astronomers in 47 days! And of course scientists are left baffled! It's a bombardment, an alien bombardment!

The international research team caught an extreme episode of cosmic explosions from Fast Radio Burst (FRB) 121102. An amazing total of 1,652 independent bursts were detected within 47 days starting Aug. 29, 2019 (UT).

It is the largest set of FRB events so far, more than the number reported in all other publications combined.

Such a burst set allows for the determination, for the first time, of the characteristic energy and energy distribution of any FRB, thus shedding light on the central engine powering FRBs.

What are FRBs?

FRBs were first detected in 2007. These cosmic explosions can be as short as one-thousandth of a second while producing one year's worth of the Sun's total energy output. The origin of FRBs is still unknown.

Although even aliens have been considered in models for FRBs, natural causes are clearly favored by the observations. The recent focuses include exotic hyper-magnetized neutron stars, black holes, and cosmic strings left over from the Big Bang.

Scientists have found that a small fraction of FRBs repeat. This phenomenon facilitates follow-up studies, including localization and identification of FRBs' host galaxies.

FRB 121102 insane bombardment

FRB 121102 is the first known repeater and the first well-localized FRB. Scientists have identified its origin in a dwarf galaxy. In addition, this FRB is clearly associated with a persistent radio source. Both clues are crucial to solving the cosmic mystery of FRBs. The behavior of FRB 121102 is hard to predict and commonly described as "seasonal."

cosmic pulse, alien bombardment, astronomy
The burst rate distribution for FRB 121102. Via National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC)

While testing the FAST FRB backend during the commissioning phase, the team noticed that FRB 121102 was acting up with frequent bright pulses. Between Aug. 29 and Oct. 29, 2019, 1,652 independent burst events were detected in a total of 59.5 hours. While the burst cadence varied during the series, 122 bursts were seen during the peak hour, corresponding to the highest event rate ever observed for any FRB.

Such high cadence facilitates a statistical study of these FRB bursts. The researchers found a clear characteristic energy of E0= 4.8 × 1037 erg, below which the generation of the bursts became less efficient.

The burst energy distribution can be adequately described as bimodal, namely, a log-normal function for low E bursts and a Lorentz function for high E bursts, implying that weaker FRB pulses may be stochastic in nature and the stronger ones involve a ratio between two independent quantities.

A river of bursts from a galaxy as recorded by the FAST telescope
A river of bursts from a galaxy as recorded by the FAST telescope. Via National Astronomical Observatories of Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC)

"The total energy of this burst set already adds up to 3.8% of what is available from a magnetar and no periodicity was found between 1 ms and 1000 s, both of which severely constrains the possibility that FRB 121102 comes from an isolated compact object," said Dr. Wang.

6 new Fast Radio Bursts

More than six new FRBs have been discovered through the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey, including one new 121102-like repeater. "As the world's largest antenna, FAST's sensitivity proves to be conducive to revealing intricacies of cosmic transients, including FRBs," said Prof. LI.

Scientific paper: Di Li , A Bimodal Burst Energy Distribution of a Repeating Fast Radio Burst Source, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03878-5. [Phys.org]

Now subscribe to this blog to get more amazing news curated just for you right in your inbox on a daily basis (here an example of our new newsletter).

You can also follow us on Facebook and/ or Twitter. And, by the way you can also make a donation through Paypal. Thank you!

You should really subscribe to QFiles. You will get very interesting information about strange events around the world.