Cosmic radio bursts have become annoying! They take on strange patterns

FRB 20220912A was discovered by the California SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array (ATA), which includes 42 antennas at the Hat Creek Radio Observatory in the Cascade Mountains. Single source broadcast 35 rapid radio pulses over a two-month period. The thing about fast radio bursts is that they only last a few milliseconds, which makes them very difficult to detect. However, when a single point is the source of dozens or several dozen flares, astronomers can successfully trace it to find the point from which it was emitted.

When astronomers first discovered FRB 20220912A, it appeared to be no different from other flares. However, further analysis showed that it differed significantly. Normally, FRB pulses move from higher frequencies to lower frequencies. However, FRB 20220912A appears Noticeable decrease in center frequency Blinks.

The decline became more apparent to researchers They convert radio signals into sound Using notes. High notes correspond to the beginning of the flare, while low notes correspond to the end notes. The project team then tried to determine if there was a pattern in the time periods between each series. Another feature of repetitive fast radio bursts.

In this case, no pattern was detected that was consistent with previous discoveries of fast radio bursts. So, FRB 20220912A is an unpredictable event.

As FRB astronomers acknowledge, every observation is subsequent to these phenomena It brings more questions than answers. One hypothesis suggests that fast radio bursts may come from magnetars, that is, the highly magnetized cores of dead stars. Others favor the theory that they are the result of collisions between dense neutron stars or white dwarfs.