A mysterious radio burst that is 3 billion light years away will "resurrect" every 157 days

According to foreign media(2021 hermes bags) reports, astronomers’ latest observations show that the mysterious radio bursts in the same area of ​​deep space maintain regular cycles and are active again at the “predetermined time”.

　　 In June of this year, researchers confirmed that the FRB 121102 rapid radio burst was repeatedly active in a cycle of 157 days. They predict that the radio storm will be active again sometime in July or August, and based on the latest observations of the source of the radio storm, this is indeed the case.

　　 FRB 121102 is located in an unknown dwarf galaxy, about 3 billion light-years away from the Earth. Chinese astronomers predict that the current FRB 121102 radio burst active period will end on September 9. A fast radio burst (FRB) is a very short, but very intense radio wave pulse. This phenomenon was first observed in 2007, but astronomers still do not know the true origin of the fast radio burst.

　　 A research team from the National Astronomical Observatory of China used a spherical radio telescope with a mirror diameter of 1,640 feet to monitor the location of the FRB 121102 radio burst, predicting that it would run in a cycle of 156.1 days. At the same time, the research team predicted that the active phase of FRB 121102 radio bursts will end between August 31 and September 9, after which a 67-day silent period will begin.

　　 If there is still evidence of a radio storm in this area on September 9, then the radio storm will either evolve or the prediction is wrong. The research team said that if the signal source continues to be turned on after the expected turn-off time, this indicates that the assumed signal source is not real or has evolved. We hope that other radio observatories will carry out more follow-up monitoring work.

　　As of 2020, the staff of the Max Planck Institute in Germany used the Eversberg telescope to observe 36 radio bursts from FRB 121102, and speculated that the period of the FRB 121102 radio burst is 161 days.

They predict that the radio burst active period will end on October 14 this year, more than a month later than the end of the active period predicted by the Chinese research team. The Chinese research team said that their predictions were derived from recent observational data and combined all previous research data to accurately predict the end of the active radio burst period.

　　 In the past 4 years, astronomers have used Lovell telescope to study one of the unusual radio bursts-named FRB 121102, to find other radio bursts of this mode. They found that the source of the radio storm was closed in June this year, but will be restored before August 28. Recent observations have proved that the prediction is correct.

　　 This is the second time that a rapid radio storm has repeated phenomena. The first time it was named FRB 180916.J10158+56, the operation period was 16 days. The research team said that proving the regularity of these radio bursts will help them rule out certain origins of the mysterious astronomical phenomenon.

　　 The authors of the research report stated that at least the recurrence of some rapid radio bursts ruled out the possibility that they were precursors to catastrophic events. Previously, astronomers believed that most radio bursts only erupt once and then never occur again, so it is impossible to predict this phenomenon.

　　 However, some radio bursts show signs of repetitive activity, but it has not been confirmed until recently that they are completely random, at least in the 16-day cycle of FRB 180916.J10158+56. The regular sequence of active radio bursts may imply that this powerful burst is related to large-scale cosmic phenomena.

　　 These cosmic phenomena may involve the trajectory activity of massive stars, neutron stars in binary star systems, or black holes. Other possible explanations for this periodic activity include: the oscillation of the rotation axis of highly magnetized neutron stars causes periodic flare bursts.

　　 When fast radio bursts were first discovered in 2007, they were initially considered to be one-off events related to the explosion of massive stars.

　　 FRB 121102 radio burst was first discovered in 2012, and it was first found to have recurring signs in 2016. FRB hunter Benjamin Stappers (Benjamin Stappers) said that the result relies on regular observations and undetected signals, which are very important during the 67-day silent period.

　　 Surprisingly, the active interval of FRB 121102 radio burst is 157 days, which is almost 10 times the 16-day interval of the first observed repeated radio burst FRB 180916.J10158+56.