Snapshot of a fast repeating radio burst

Studied in detail one of the most mysterious phenomena in the universe: a fast radio flash that repeats itself. The source in question, which ended up in the crosshairs of nine observers from earth and space, is called FRB20201124A: it is an object discovered in November 2020 which reactivated in March 2021 emitting a series of radio flashes, and it is also the third Fast-repeating radio burst recently located in a nearby galaxy. His most detailed ‘snapshot’ is published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters by an international team led by researchers from the National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF).

The observations were initiated in April 2021 with instruments in radio waves, visible light and X-rays with the space observatories Swift and Chandra, together with Very Large Array (VLA), European VLBI Network (EVN), e-Merlin, Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST), Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT), Upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) and Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT), the latter of INAF near Cagliari.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) produce intense radio wave emissions for only a few milliseconds before fading and are rarely seen. Thanks to the discovery of fast radio bursts that repeat the emission even after months, the scientific community is confirming the model that indicates magnetars (a particular class of neutron stars) as the most probable origin of these phenomena.

“Our work – explains Luigi Piro of INAF in Rome and first author of the study – made it possible to create a radio image of the host galaxy of the fast radio flash, discovering that the location previously provided by other authors corresponds to an emission region. diffuse radio, attributable to a region with a high rate of star formation. We also discovered a weak emission in X-rays coming from the same region “. The faint X-ray source, presumably produced by other neutron stars and black holes, could be the first X-ray detection associated with a star-forming region around an FRB.

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Source From: Ansa

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