Since the discovery of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), which are brief eruptions of cosmic radio waves, astronomers have been unable to determine much information regarding its formation. However, researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have changed that with their recent study that creates the most detailed record of FRBs yet through the analysis of 650 hours of archival data from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Green Bank Telescope (GBT). From the data, the researchers determined that FRBs originated inside an extremely magnetized region of space, which could have been linked to a supernova or active star-forming nebula.
"We now know that the energy from this FRB passed through a dense, magnetized region shortly after it formed," said Kiyoshi Masui, lead author of the study, according to Phys.org. "This significantly narrows down the source's environment and type of event that triggered the burst."
FRBs come from seemingly random directions in the sky and last only a fraction of a second. Although previous research has only documented a handful of them, scientists believe that thousands of FRBs occur in the universe on a daily basis.
Researchers from the study determined that the FRBs' radio lights possess Faraday rotations, which are twisting radio waves that are created by passing through magnetic fields.
"This tells us something about the magnetic field that the burst traveled through on its way to us, giving a hint about the burst's environment," said Masui. "It also gives the theorists a bit more to work with when they come up with explanations for these bursts."
Additionally, further analysis discovered that the signals pass through two unique areas of ionized gas on their way to Earth. By analyzing the interplay between these two gas screens, they were able to determine that FRBs are either influenced by nebulas at their source or the environmental characteristics present at the center of a galaxy.
"Taken together, these remarkable data reveal more about an FRB than we have ever seen before and give us important constraints on these mysterious events," said Masui. "We also have an exciting new tool to search through otherwise overwhelming archival data to uncover more examples and get closer to truly understanding their nature."
