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They detect radio signals from another galaxy that are repeated every 16 days

Space

19:11 GMT 10.02.2020(updated at 08:59 GMT 12.02.2020) Short URL

One of the characteristics that define the mysterious signals of deep space is that they are unpredictable. For the first time, astronomers detected a rapid radio burst – FRB, which is repeated every 16 days.

The signal called FRB 180916.J0158 + 65 is located on the outskirts of a spiral galaxy 500 million light years away, in a star-forming region.

“Every 16.35 days, FRB 180916.J0158 + 65 follows the same pattern. For four days, one or two bursts occur every hour. Then it remains silent for 12 days. And then everything repeats,” he explains. the Article from Sciene Alert.

Astronomers from the Canadian hydrogen intensity experiment (CHIME) observed this cycle for a total of 409 days.

“We still don’t know what it means, but it could be another piece in the complicated FRB puzzle,” they say.

FRBs are hugely powerful bursts that last only a few milliseconds at most. At that time, they can discharge as much energy as hundreds of millions of suns.

According to the researchers, the discovery of a FRB periodicity is an important clue to the nature of this object.

Other objects that demonstrate periodicity tend to be binary systems: stars and black holes. The 16.35 day period could be the orbital period, say the scientists. Then, it can be assumed that the FRB object faces the Earth in a certain part of the orbit.

Nor is it ruled out that the source of FRB is a single and solitary object such as a magnetar or an X-ray pulsar. However, the researchers point out that this explanation is less likely because these objects have a wobbly rotation that produces periodicity, but it is not He knows that none wobbles so slowly.

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