Wobbly star may be radio burst culprit

• Autores: Leah Crane
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3271, 2020, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The strangest fast radio burst (FRB) yet is helping us to narrow down the possible causes of these powerful blasts of radio waves from space. The unusual patterns we see in its light suggest it may come from a wobbly neutron star. FRBs generally last only a few milliseconds, but some of them repeat. We don't know what causes them, although black holes, strange quark stars and alien spaceships have all been put forward as explanations. Sorting it out has been made harder because the timing of the repeating FRBs has seemed random, and many potential sources of repeating blasts should result in predictable patterns. Here, Crane discusses a study by Yuri Levin at Columbia University in New York and his colleagues--and several other groups of researchers which suggests that wobbly star may be radio burst culprit.