Magnetar SGR 1935+2154
was discovered in 2014, but April 2020 was when scientists saw it become active
again
By Chris Ciaccia
Fast radio bursts (FRBs)
are often mysterious in nature, but not an uncommon observation in deep space.
However, researchers have discovered the first FRB to emanate from the Milky
Way galaxy, according to a newly published study.
The research details magnetar SGR 1935+2154,
which was discovered in 2014, but it wasn't until April 2020 when scientists
saw it become active again, shooting out radio waves and X-rays at random intervals.
“We’ve never seen a burst
of radio waves, resembling a Fast Radio Burst, from a magnetar before,” the
study's lead author, Sandro Mereghetti of the National Institute for
Astrophysics (INAF–IASF), said in a statement.
This FRB likely comes
from a neutron star, approximately 30,000 light-years from Earth in the
Vulpecula constellation, LiveScience reports. A light-year, which measures
distance in space, is approximately 6 trillion miles.
Mereghetti and the other
researchers detected the FRB using the European Space Agency's (ESA) Integral
satellite on April 28.
The "Burst Alert
System" sent out an alert about the discovery around the world "in
just seconds," which Merghetti said enabled "the scientific community
to act fast and explore this source in more detail.”
Astronomers around the
globe also spotted the "short and extremely bright burst of radio
waves" via the CHIME radio telescope in Canada also on April 28.
Subsequent confirmations came from California and Utah the following day.
“This is the first ever
observational connection between magnetars and Fast Radio Bursts," Mereghetti
added. "It truly is a major discovery, and helps to bring the origin of
these mysterious phenomena into focus.”
The study has been
published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
It's unknown how common
FRBs actually are and why some of them repeat and others do not; most of their
origins are also mysterious in nature.
Some researchers have
speculated they stem from an extraterrestrial civilization. But others,
including the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute, or SETI, have
said that explanation "really doesn't make sense."
They come from all over
space "and arranging cooperative alien behavior when even one-way
communication takes many billions of years seems unlikely — to put it gently,"
SETI wrote in a September 2019 blog post.
First discovered in 2007,
FRBs are relatively new to astronomers and their origins are mysterious.
According to ScienceAlert, some of them can generate as much energy as 500
million suns in a few milliseconds.
In July 2018, an FRB that
hit Earth was nearly 200 megahertz lower than any other radio burst ever
detected.