Space discovery: Scientists have identified the source of mysterious radio wave bursts.

Scientists have for the first time tracked a fast radio burst to identify its source. This was reported on January 2 by Science Alert.

In 2020, researchers detected an exceptionally powerful burst of radio waves, but only now have they obtained concrete evidence regarding the origin of these unknown nature impulses. By studying the flicker of a fast radio burst (FRB) discovered in 2022, astronomers traced its source. It turned out to be a strong magnetic field surrounding a magnetar (a neutron star) located 200 million light-years from Earth. This is the first evidence that FRBs can originate from the magnetic fields of such stars.

"In the environments of neutron stars, magnetic fields are indeed at the edge of what the universe can create. There has been much debate about whether this bright radio emission can even escape from this extreme plasma," noted astrophysicist Kenzie Nimmo from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

FRBs have puzzled scientists since their first detection in 2007. These are extremely brief bursts of radio emissions lasting just milliseconds. In addition to being rapid, these signals are also incredibly powerful—sometimes releasing more energy than 500 million suns in that same time frame.

Fast radio bursts are challenging to study because they usually occur as single, one-time events. They cannot be predicted, and tracing their source is difficult. A number of FRBs, as researchers have discovered, originated from galaxies millions and billions of light-years away from Earth.

Astronomers can also investigate the properties of radio emissions, such as their polarization. This helps determine the medium through which they traveled on their way to Earth. What types of stars can emit FRBs remains a mystery, but increasing evidence suggests that magnetars are capable of doing so.

Magnetars are a special type of neutron star that are extremely dense remnants of a core. They remain after a massive star goes supernova. Magnetars possess the strongest external magnetic fields in the universe—about a thousand times stronger than those of ordinary neutron stars.

"Around these highly magnetic neutron stars, also known as supernova remnants, atoms cannot exist—they would be torn apart by the magnetic fields. The most interesting thing here is that we have discovered that the energy accumulated in these magnetic fields near the source distorts and changes configuration in such a way that it can be released as radio waves, which we can see halfway to the universe," explained physicist Kiyoshi Masui from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

To track the source of the fast radio burst FRB 20221022A, scientists studied its scintillation. Scintillation is what makes stars twinkle; it is the distortion of the light path as it passes through gas in space. The strength of this twinkling is equivalent to the distance to its source.

FRB 20221022A lasted about two milliseconds and had moderate power, making it an excellent sample for study. The light from the radio wave burst showed strong scintillation.

Thus, scientists obtained the first evidence that extragalactic fast radio bursts can arise from the magnetosphere of neutron stars with powerful fields. Furthermore, the study indicated that scintillation could assist in working with other FRBs.

"These bursts occur constantly. There may be a wide variety in how and where they happen, and this scintillation technique will be very useful in helping to unravel the various physical processes that govern these bursts," Masui explained.

As a reminder, astrophysicists solved the mystery of strange radio pulses that were nicknamed the zebra pattern.

Inventor Nikola Tesla did not believe in the existence of electrons and thought he had recorded a cosmic ray. Additionally, he believed he had captured radio signals from intelligent extraterrestrials.