Fast radio bursts or FRBs, are extraordinary events
that generate as much energy in a thousandth of a second
as the Sun does in an entire year!
Astronomers, using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
have traced the locations of five brief, powerful
radio blasts to the spiral arms of five distant galaxies.
Because these radio pulses disappear in much
less than the blink of an eye, researchers
have had a hard time tracking down where they
come from, and what causes them.
Locating the galaxies where these blasts originate,
is important in determining what astronomical
events trigger such intense flashes of energy.
The Hubble Space Telescope helped researchers
narrow the list of possible FRB sources.
Since their discovery in 2007, astronomers have uncovered
up to 1,000 FRBs, but only
about 15 are associated with particular galaxies.
In this new Hubble study of FRBs, astronomers
pinpointed where those bursts occurred within their specific galaxies.
These images display a range of spiral-arm structures,
from tightly wound to more open,
revealing how stars are distributed along these prominent features.
These clues helped researchers rule out some of the possible stellar objects originally
thought to cause these brilliant flares, including
the explosive deaths of the youngest, most
massive stars, which create gamma-ray bursts and some types of supernovae.
Another unlikely source is the merger of neutron stars,
the crushed cores of stars that end
their lives in supernova explosions. These mergers take billions of years to occur and
are usually far from the spiral arms of older galaxies that no longer form stars.
This study suggests that FRBs do not originate from the
youngest, most massive stars or from
older stars in a galaxy's central bulge.
However, it is consistent with the leading model that
FRBs originate from young magnetar outbursts.
Magnetars are a type of neutron star with powerful magnetic fields.
Called the strongest magnets in the universe, Magnetars possess
a magnetic field 10 trillion
times more powerful than the magnets on your refrigerator door!
These magnetic fields lead to flares and magnetic processes that can emit radio light.
Although the Hubble results are exciting, researchers
need more observations to better
pinpoint the source of FRBs so they can develop
a stronger understanding of these enigmatic flashes.
This field of study may need a lot more research,
but thanks to observations made with the Hubble
Space Telescope, we’re getting closer to understanding the mysteries of the universe.
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