Many secrets are hidden in space, and astronomers have received the hint of one such secret. They have detected a mysterious radio signal from space. Nature, the world’s leading multidisciplinary science journal, has published an article, according to which, the radio signal came from another galaxy that happens to be nearly three billion light-years away from the Earth. The new Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) has been termed FRB 20190520B.

This is the second time when such a radio signal has been received from space. Astronomers had received such a radio signal for the first time in 2007. According to space.com, this phenomenon was discovered by graduate student David Narkevich and his supervisor Duncan Lorimer. Scientists still have no clear idea about this type of radio signal. Hence, they are carrying out more research work on this.

It may be noted that the FRB was detected using the 500mt Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) in the Chinese city of Guizhou in May 2019. Interestingly, nearly 75 such radio signals were received from space between April and September 2020. They were thought to be caused by multiple explosions in cosmic objects. The FRB is a strong signal. Although these signals last for a few milliseconds, they return again and again.

Astronomer Sarah Burke-Spolaor said: “The FRB field is moving very fast right now and new discoveries are coming out monthly. However, big questions still remain, and this object is giving us challenging clues about those questions.” For her part, Astronomer Casey Law of Caltech stressed: “These characteristics make this one look a lot like the very first FRB whose position was determined, also by the VLA (the National Science Foundation’s Karl G Jansky Very Large Array), back in 2016.” While the 2016 object was called FRB 121102, the properties were similar to FRB 20190520B. “Now we actually need to explain this double mystery and why FRBs and persistent radio sources are found together sometimes,” added Law.

Meanwhile, researchers are of the opinion that the FRB 190520 may be a newborn. In other words, it is “still surrounded by dense material ejected by the supernova explosion that left behind the neutron star”. Researchers have explained that once the material dissipates, the burst signals shall also decline. At the same time, they have admitted that some questions are still unanswered.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das