Powerful Radio Signal From Deep Space Appears to Be Repeating in a 16-Day Cycle
Michelle Starr, Science Alert
c/o The Woodpile Report
h/t Misanthropic Humanitarian on A♠
…Now, for the first time, astronomers have found a fast radio burst (FRB) that repeats on a regular cycle.
Every 16.35 days, the signal named FRB 180916.J0158+65 follows a similar pattern. For four days, it will spit out a burst or two every hour. Then it falls silent for 12 days. Then the whole thing repeats.…
…FRBs are hugely energetic flares of radiation in the radio spectrum that last just a few milliseconds at most. In that timeframe, they can discharge as much power as hundreds of millions of Suns.
Most of them spark once, and we have never detected them again. This makes it rather difficult to track these bursts down to a source galaxy. Some FRBs spit out repeating radio flares, but wildly unpredictably. These are easier to track to a galaxy, but so far, that hasn’t brought us a great deal closer to an explanation.…
…”The discovery of a 16.35-day periodicity in a repeating FRB source is an important clue to the nature of this object….”
Illustration: belfasttelegraph.co.uk
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