Well, that was surprising.
An international team of astronomers say they observed a
magnetar — the remains of a dead star with an extremely powerful magnetic field
— unleash a burst of high-energy radiation made up of X-rays and radio waves
that have never previously been observed.
It was likely a type of mysterious cosmic outburst referred
to as fast radio burst (FRB), which have long puzzled astronomers. But thanks
to a new study about the strange magnetar, published in the
Astrophysical Journal Letters, that could be starting to change.
In late April, the international team spotted something
entirely unprecedented: an FRB originating within the Milky Way, emanating from
a magnetar called SGR 1935+2154, some 30,000 light-years away from Earth.
These outbursts tend to be so bright that they're billions
of times more luminous than the Sun — but only last for a split second.
The discovery was made possible by the "Burst Alert
System" built into the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL (International
Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) space telescope, which "automatically
alerted observatories worldwide about the discovery in just seconds," as
Sandro Mereghetti, astrophysicist at the National Institute for Astrophysics in
Milan, Italy, and lead author, explained in a statement.
FRB hunters at the Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio
Emission 2 (STARE2) in the US were able to confirm the dazzling sight just
hours later.
The observation could settle the major mystery surrounding
FRBs: whether they do indeed originate from magnetars.
"We've never seen a burst of radio waves, resembling a
Fast Radio Burst, from a magnetar before," Mereghetiti sated. "This
is the first ever observational connection between magnetars and Fast Radio
Bursts."
"It truly is a major discovery, and helps to bring the
origin of these mysterious phenomena into focus," he added.