Chinese telescope discovered something amazing 3 billion light years away

An international team led by scientists China led to detect and locate the first continuously repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with the help of the world’s largest radio telescope – China’s 500m Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST).

According to the Global Times, the discovery could help scientists understand the origin of the brightest radio waves emitted billions of light-years beyond the galaxy.

The new FRB, named FRB190520B, was discovered in a Galaxy metal-poor dwarf 3 billion light-years away.

The original discovery was made by Niu Chenhui, a researcher from the National Astronomical Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) via FAST from May 20, 2019. Later, Law Casey, a scientist with the California Institute of Technology, located the FRB190520B in July 2020.

The study, led by FAST lead scientist Li Di, was published in the journal Nature on June 8.

FRBs are mysterious radio flashes lasting several milliseconds from deep space, but little is known about their origins, although some scientists think they may be evidence of life in humans. alien.

To date, less than 5% of the hundreds of FRBs have been found to be repeats. Only a few are active and only the FRB190520B has been found to be continuously active, thus providing valuable insights into their secrets.

FRB190520B has the highest ambient electron density of all FRBs and shows reliably explosive behaviors that can be detected monthly. Four explosions were detected in the first 24 seconds.

The characteristics of the FRB190520B indicate that it may have been an “infant”. According to the team, this discovery hints at the evolutionary picture of FRBs.

FRB190520B is the first repeating FRB detected by FAST and only the second repeating FRB with a compact continuous radio source, Niu said. The US Arecibo radio telescope first detected FRB121102A in 2016.

Niu told the Global Times that the behavior of FRB190520B is similar to that of FRB121102A, but operates more continuously and has a more complex electromagnetic environment.

Duncan Lorimer, a professor at West Virginia University who first discovered FRBs, commented that the new FAST finding suggests that the FRB phenomenon may be due to several source populations and that more populations are expected. other results in the future.

Collaborative research is increasingly significant in the field astronomy and the locating of FRB190520B was carried out with the help of scientists and equipment from the US.

At a press conference on June 6, Hou Jianguo – President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences – said that so far, FAST has provided observation time for 27 international projects from 14 countries.