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NEUTRINOS COULD REVEAL HOW FAST RADIO BURSTS ARE LAUNCHED
Friday, 02 October 2020
For more than a decade, astronomers have been experiencing rapid radio explosions, brief explosions of radio waves, often coming from distant galaxies. During the same period, scientists discovered high-energy neutrinos, ghost particles coming from outside the Milky Way, and their origin is unknown.
A new theory suggests that two mysterious signals may come from a cosmic source: highly active and magnetized neutron stars called magnetars. If true, it may fill in the details of how quickly radio explosions or FRBs occur. However, finding a "smoking gun" - catching neutrinos and radio explosions simultaneously is challenging because such neutrinos are rare and difficult to detect, says Brian Metzger, an astronomer at Columbia University.
Even so, “this paper gives a possible link between what I think are two of the most exciting mysteries in astrophysics,” says astrophysicist Justin Vandenbroucke of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who hunts for neutrinos but was not involved in the new work.
More than 100 fast-paced radio explosions have been detected, but most are too far away for astronomers to see as triggering energy explosions. Dozens of interpretations have been discussed, from stellar collisions to miraculous black holes to pulsars or rotating star bodies called pulsars orbiting black holes (SN: 1/10/18). Some astronomers have even sent signals from aliens.
A new theory suggests that two mysterious signals may come from a cosmic source: highly active and magnetized neutron stars called magnetars. If true, it may fill in the details of how quickly radio explosions or FRBs occur. However, finding a "smoking gun" - catching neutrinos and radio explosions simultaneously is challenging because such neutrinos are rare and difficult to detect, says Brian Metzger, an astronomer at Columbia University.
Even so, “this paper gives a possible link between what I think are two of the most exciting mysteries in astrophysics,” says astrophysicist Justin Vandenbroucke of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who hunts for neutrinos but was not involved in the new work.
More than 100 fast-paced radio explosions have been detected, but most are too far away for astronomers to see as triggering energy explosions. Dozens of interpretations have been discussed, from stellar collisions to miraculous black holes to pulsars or rotating star bodies called pulsars orbiting black holes (SN: 1/10/18). Some astronomers have even sent signals from aliens.