Two NASA X-ray telescopes recently observed one of these phenomena – known as a fast radio burst (FRB) – just minutes before and after it occurred. This unprecedented observation is helping scientists better understand these extreme radio events.

FRBs last only a fraction of a second but can release as much energy as the Sun over an entire year. Their light forms a beam similar to a laser, distinguishing them from more chaotic cosmic explosions. However, their brevity makes pinpointing the source difficult. Before 2020, those traced back to their origin came from outside our galaxy, too far for astronomers to see what created them.

Then an FRB occurred in the Milky Way from an extremely dense object called a magnetar, the collapsed remains of an exploded star. In October 2022, the same magnetar – named SGR 1935+2154 – produced another FRB, closely studied by NASA’s NICER telescope onboard the International Space Station and NuSTAR in low-Earth orbit.

Magnetars are young neutron stars with an ultra-powerful magnetic field, a trillion times more powerful than that of the Earth. The twisting of the magnetic field lines in magnetars causes 'stellar earthquakes' that will eventually lead to an intense burst of soft gamma rays
Magnetars are young neutron stars with an ultra-powerful magnetic field, a trillion times more powerful than that of the Earth. The twisting of the magnetic field lines in magnetars causes ‘stellar earthquakes’ that will eventually lead to an intense burst of soft gamma rays. Credit: ESO / L.Calçada / Wikimedia Commons

The telescopes observed the magnetar for hours, glimpsing what was happening on its surface and immediate environment before and after the quick radio burst. Results from the new study published in Nature are an example of NASA telescopes working together to observe and track short-lived cosmic events.

The burst occurred between two “glitches”, when the magnetar suddenly began spinning faster. Calculations show SGR 1935+2154 is around 20 kilometers wide and spins about 3.2 times per second – meaning its surface moves nearly 11,000 kilometers per hour.

Slowing or speeding such an object requires immense energy. Surprisingly, the authors saw the magnetar decelerate to below its previous glitch rate in just nine hours – around 100 times faster than seen before in a magnetar.

Artist's impression of the trajectory of the fast radio burst FRB 181112 traveling from a distant galaxy to reach Earth
Artist’s impression of the trajectory of the fast radio burst FRB 181112 traveling from a distant galaxy to reach Earth. Credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser / Wikimedia Commons

Normally it takes weeks or months to recover spin rate after glitches, said study lead author Chin-Ping Hu of Taiwan’s National Changhua University of Education. Clearly something is happening on faster timescales than we thought, and that could relate to how quickly FRBs are generated.

Factors like magnetars’ extreme density, volatile surfaces that regularly eject X-rays and high-energy light, and potential desynchronization of their solid outer layers and superfluid interiors may play a role. But having observed only one such phenomenon, the team cannot confirm which triggered this FRB.

We’ve surely witnessed something important to understanding FRBs, said George Younes of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. But we need a lot more data to solve the full mystery. Continued multi-wavelength observations of more magnetars may hold the key to solving why these enigmatic cosmic flashes occur.

Sources

NASA | Hu, CP., Narita, T., Enoto, T. et al. Rapid spin changes around a magnetar fast radio burst. Nature 626, 500–504 (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-07012-5

  • Share this article:
Image of Odd radio circle ORC J2103-6200 from 2022 by the MeerKAT telescope superimposed on an optical image from the Dark Energy Survey
Astronomers Discover Origin of Rare Radio Circles in Universe Astronomers don't usually say "What's that?" when looking at the night sky. They know what most things are like stars, planets, black holes and galaxies. But in 2019, a new…
1115_space_0-2
A Strange New Cosmic Phenomenon Puzzles Scientists Astronomers have discovered an unusual and extraordinary new space phenomenon - repeated energetic flare-ups observed over several months following the explosive death of a distant star. Led by researchers at…
Artistic visualization of GRB 221009A showing the narrow relativistic jets - emerging from a central black hole - that gave rise to the GRB and the expanding remnants of the original star ejected by the supernova explosion
Greatest Explosion Recorded since the Big Bang Unlocks a New Cosmological Mystery In October 2022, an international team of researchers, including astrophysicists from Northwestern University, observed the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever recorded, GRB 221009A. Now, a team led by Northwestern has…
njit-scientists-uncove-2
Scientists Detect Long-Lasting Radio Emissions from a Solar Spot Scientists have made detailed radio observations of an unusual aurora-like phenomenon occurring 40,000 km above a relatively dark and cool area of the Sun known as a solar spot. Using…
Visualization of the Milky Way, with the stars that Khyati Malhan and Hans-Walter Rix identified in the Gaia DR3 data set as belonging to Shiva and Shakti shown as colored dots. Shiva stars appear in green and Shakti stars in pink. The complete absence of green and pink markers in some regions does not mean that there are no Shiva or Shakti stars there, as the data set used for this study only covers specific regions within our galaxy
Astronomers Identify Two of the First Cosmic Structures that Came Together to Create the Milky Way: Shakti and Shiva Our home, the Milky Way galaxy, has a long and fascinating history. It wasn't always the grand, spiral structure we see today. Instead, it was built up over billions of…
STScI-01HF7P3X06S6DD4MEXWQASJ7YJ
The James Webb Space Telescope Reveals New Features Never Seen Before in the Heart of the Milky Way NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captured a detailed image of Sagittarius C in the Milky Way, revealing star-forming regions and protostars previously unseen, potentially revolutionizing our understanding of star birth.

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.