FAST RADIO BURST Nandini Chatterjee Credit: M. Weiss CfA
WHAT ARE FAST RADIO BURSTS? Powerful flashes of light known as fast radio burst (FRBs) Radio emissions / radio brightness Lasts about a second, disappears, and never repeats Only one of the sources have been localized so far First described in 2007 FRB are named FRB YYMMDD Example: FRB 010724 Found more than 2 dozen Credit: Jingchuan Yu, Beijing Planetarium
WHAT CAUSES FAST RADIO BURSTS? Hypothesis 1: Explosions driven by young, fastspinning neuron stars with strong magnetic fields Hypothesis 2: Explosion of a star Hypothesis 3: Black holes combining together can create radio flashes Hypothesis 4: Generated by intelligent aliens Hypothesis 5: Blitzar Credit: Space.com
BREAKTHROUGH LISTEN Announced in July 2015 Goal: Looking for signs of intelligent alien life Scans the nearest million stars in the Milky Way and star in 100 other galaxies Cost: $100 million project Parkes Telescope in Australia is also involved Credit: National Radio Astronomy Observatory Credit: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
FRB 121102 Credit: Breakthrough Listen/UC Berkeley A dwarf galaxy discovered Nov. 2, 2012 3 billion light years away from Earth Green Bank Telescope detected 15 new pulses high of frequency (August 26) Brightest emission at around 7 GHz Source is newly active Measurement of the properties of these bursts Credit: ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy
WHICH HYPOTHESES HAVE BEEN RULED OUT? The supermassive black hole hypothesis The intelligent aliens hypothesis The Blitzar hypothesis Credit: M. Weiss/CfA
EARLIER OCCURRENCES 1 2 3 4 August 24, 2001: 5- millisecond burst Smallest wavelength dispersion burst Largest wavelength dispersion burst FRB detected 6 billion light years away
WHY IS FRB IMPORTANT? Sort out source which are unknown Increase the number that we discover Approximately 25,000 flashes each day Hope to discover at least 10 flashes per day Learn about the universe s evolution Better understanding of the reionization Universe Mapping Study the magnetic fields Study turbulence & the materials between Earth and the sources Credit: NASA/WMAP Science Team
CITATIONS Billings, Lee. A Brilliant Flash, Then Nothing: New. Scientific American, 9 July 2013, www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-brilliant-flash-thennothing-new-fast-radio-bursts-mystify-astronomers/. Drake, Nadia. Storm of Strange Radio Bursts Emerges From Deep Space. National Geographic, National Geographic Society, 1 Sept. 2017, news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/radio-bursts-galaxy-space-breakthrough-listen-science/. Fast Radio Bursts May Be Firing Off Every Second. Www.cfa.harvard.edu/, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), 21 Sept. 2017, www.cfa.harvard.edu/news/2017-28. Green Bank Telescope Joins Breakthrough Listen. National Radio Astronomy Observatory, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, 20 July 2015, public.nrao.edu/news/gbt-breakthrough-listen/. Kohler, Susanna. A New Clue in the Mystery of Fast Radio Bursts. AAS Nova, 28 June 2017, aasnova.org/2017/06/28/a-new-clue-in-the-mysteryof-fast-radio-bursts/. Sanders, Robert. Distant Galaxy Sends out 15 High-Energy Radio Bursts. Berkeley News, 1 Sept. 2017, news.berkeley.edu/2017/08/30/distantgalaxy-sends-out-15-high-energy-radio-bursts/. Spaleta, Steve. Mysterious 'Fast Radio Burst' Source Detected. Space.com, Space.com, 2 Dec. 2016, www.space.com/31250-mysterious-fastradio-burst-source-detected-video.html. Wall, Mike. Could Mysterious Cosmic Light Flashes Be Powering Alien Spacecraft? Space.com, Space.com, 9 Mar. 2017, www.space.com/35996-fast-radio-bursts-powering-alien-spacecraft.html. Wall, Mike. $100 Million E.T. Hunt Spots 15 Mysterious Light Flashes. Space.com, Space.com, 30 Aug. 2017, www.space.com/37992-fast-radiobursts-breakthrough-listen.html. Wall, Mike. Fast Radio Bursts Flash throughout the Cosmos. Scientific American, Scientific American, 26 Sept. 2017, www.scientificamerican.com/article/fast-radio-bursts-flash-throughout-the-cosmos/. Welcome to the CSIRO Parkes Observatory. CSIRO Parkes Observatory Australia Telescope National Facility, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/.