One of the most energetic, and still unexplained, phenomena are Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). These momentary bursts, that in a few rare instances repeat, emit the same energy in seconds that our Sun will release across 80 years. Part of understanding what they require means just understanding where they are. New research from Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), has been able to catch four of these systems bursting and precisely identified their place in the sky. They appear to be in the outskirts of galaxies, ruling out SMBHs as the source. This work is published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (ApJL) with lead author Shivani Bhandari. While this paper still doesn’t tell us exactly what the source of these objects is, the location hints that it could be aged objects undergoing dramatic interactions, such as neutron stars or white dwarfs. More research is still needed, but this is a major step forward.
More Information
“The Host Galaxies and Progenitors of Fast Radio Bursts Localized with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder,” Shivani Bhandari et al., 2020 June 1, Astrophysical Journal Letters (Preprint on arxiv.org)
