Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 26

DANIËLLE FUTSELAAR / ASTRON / HST
MYSTERIOUS RADIO SIGNALS by Shivani Bhandari
Fast Radio Bursts Hit Prime Time
Less than two decades after their discovery, these cosmic flashes have revealed
much about their nature - but we still debate how they're created.
T
he more I study the universe, the more I am in awe of
its beautifully complex detail. It's a dynamic and turbulent
place: While the sky appears largely unchanging
to our human eyes, it puts on a spectacular display of
fireworks every day that's detectable with the eyes of a radio
telescope.
Over the last two decades, we've developed the ability
to study rapid changes in the radio universe, catching
signals that typically last less than the blink of an eye. Such
advances resulted in the breakthrough discovery of fast radio
bursts (FRBs, S&T: July 2016, p. 24). These signals are mysterious
cosmic explosions that originate in distant galaxies and
release a terrific rush of energy in just a millisecond - sometimes
as much as the Sun emits in a few days. To date, we
still don't know what causes them, but we know it must be
something very powerful yet remarkably small, roughly the
size of a city.
26 SEPTEMBER 2022 * SKY & TELESCOPE
COSMIC HERALD Artistic view of the fast radio burst FRB
20180916B hitting the heart of the LOFAR array in the Netherlands.
Intergalactic gas delays lower frequencies more than it does higher
ones, so the lower frequencies (redder colors) take longer to reach the
detectors. The FRB's repeated bursts enabled astronomers to locate
its source in the spiral galaxy SDSS J0158+6542, which lies 500 million
light-years from Earth (inset).
Every day, hundreds to thousands of FRBs occur above our
heads, making them more common than most other transient
events, such as supernovae. We have now detected 614
FRBs from all over the sky - approximately 100 times more
than were known in 2014 when I began my PhD in this field.
The Serendipitous Discovery
The frenzy began in 2007, while astronomers were looking
for extragalactic radio pulsars - rapidly spinning neutron
stars that release intense radiation beams that sweep across

Sky & Telescope - September 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - September 2022

Contents
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - Cover1
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - Cover2
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 1
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - Contents
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 3
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 4
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 5
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 6
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 7
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 8
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 9
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 10
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 11
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 12
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 13
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 14
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 15
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Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 17
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 18
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Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 26
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Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - 49
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Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - Cover3
Sky & Telescope - September 2022 - Cover4
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