They pick up sharp FRB signals drilling into nearby galaxies

12 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –

Five new FRB cosmic signals have been captured with unprecedented clarity drilling into our neighboring Triangulum galaxy by the radio telescope array in Westerbork, the Netherlands.

The images allowed astronomers to determine for the first time the maximum number of invisible atoms in this galaxy. The results are published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The rapid bursts of radio, FRB (Fast Radio Burst), They are among the brightest explosions in the universe. The bursts emit mainly radio waves. The flashes are so powerful that radio telescopes can detect them even over 4 billion light-years away.. That continuous visibility over such vast distances means that the bursts contain immense amounts of energy. When turned off, a single FRB contains ten trillion (ten million times one million) times the annual energy consumption of the entire world population.

This gigantic power generation makes FRBs very interesting. Many astronomers believe that they are emitted by neutron stars. The density and strength of the magnetic field of these extremely compact stars are unique in the universe. When investigating the flashes, astronomers seek to better understand the fundamental properties of the matter that makes up the universe. But studying these flashes is difficult. No one knows where in the sky the next burst will explode. And an FRB lasts only a millisecond: if you blink, you’ll miss it.

Powered by new receivers and a new supercomputer (the Apertif Radio Transient System, ARTS), Westerbork has discovered five new FRBs. He also immediately identified them, he says. it’s a statement Principal Investigator Joeri van Leeuwen (ASTRON), “We now have an instrument with a very wide field of view and very sharp vision. And all this live. That’s new and exciting“.

Previously, radio telescopes like the one at Westerbork detected FRBs with the compound eyes of a fly. Flies can see in all directions, but blurry. The Westerbork update is like meeting the eyes of a fly with those of an eagle. The ARTS supercomputer continuously combines the images from twelve Westerbork dishes to create a sharp image in a massive field of view.

“You can’t just buy the complex electronics you need for this,” says systems architect Eric Kooistra (ASTRON). “We designed most of the system ourselves, with a great team. That resulted in a state-of-the-art machine, one of the most powerful in the world.”

Astronomers want to understand how and why FRBs get so bright. But the flashes are also interesting because on their way to Earth they pass through other galaxies. Electrons in these normally mostly invisible galaxies distort the flares. Tracking the invisible electrons and the atoms that accompany them is important because most of the matter in the universe is dark and we still know little about it.

Previously, radio telescopes could only tell approximately where an FRB occurred. The ARTS supercomputer now allows Westerbork to pinpoint the exact location of an FRB with great precision. Van Leeuwen says: “We showed that three of the FRBs we discovered had skewered our neighbor, the Triangulum galaxy. Therefore, we were able to count how many invisible electrons that galaxy contains at most, for the first time. A fantastic result.”