A strange FRB dismantles what little we thought we knew about these mysterious space radio signals

The newly detected powerful radio signal is indeed not like the others. It was captured with the Australian radio telescope ASKAP by a team of researchers led by Martin Glowacki, from the Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and shows, as explained in an article published in ‘The Astrophysical Journal’, a series of unique characteristics and very different from those of the rest of the known FRBs. Called FRB 211127, the new fast radio burst comes from a spiral galaxy more than 600 million light-years from Earth.

As is known, FRBs are characterized by intense flashes of energy at radio wavelengths. Flashes that barely last a few milliseconds, but that release in that time the same energy that the Sun is capable of producing in several decades. No one yet knows what kind of phenomenon such a powerful radio signal can generate, but all those known so far have in common the fact that they come from very tumultuous galaxies, suggesting that very extreme conditions are needed, such as a galactic collision. , to generate them. The new finding has put this idea to rest.

“Of the radio bursts in which we have studied their host galaxies in detail,” says Glowacki, “we have seen collisions and mergers. But in this investigation we are not seeing the same clear signs of a turbulent galaxy. On the contrary, what we have seen is that the host galaxy appears calm, even unchanging. Which suggests that the massive star that caused the FRB was not born violently, or that this powerful radio burst was created by something else entirely.” Something, yes, but what?

Unfortunately, many of the known FRBs are so far away that a detailed study of their host galaxies is not possible. And much more research is needed to study and better understand the environments in which these powerful signals occur.

Without any concrete answer, there is no shortage of those who say that the FRBs are of artificial origin, signals generated by distant extraterrestrial civilizations to communicate over enormous distances… In any case, natural or not, it is a mystery yet to be solved.