Name: Powerful Radio Signal From Deep Space Appears to Be Repeating in a 16-Day Cycle
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Powerful Radio Signal From Deep Space Appears to Be Repeating in a 16-Day Cycle

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One of the defining characteristics of the mysterious deep-space signals we call is that they are unpredictable. They belch out across the cosmos without rhyme or reason, with no discernible pattern, making them incredibly hard to study.Now, for the first time, astronomers have found a ( ) that repeats on a regular cycle.Every 16.35 days, the signal named FRB 180916.J0158+65 follows a similar pattern. For four days, it will spit out a burst or two every hour. Then it falls silent for 12 days. Then the whole thing repeats.Astronomers with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Collaboration in Canada observed this cycle for a total of 409 days. We don't yet know what it means; but it could be another piece in the complicated conundrum of FRBs.&nbsp;The research has been uploaded to pre-print server , where it awaits scrutiny from other experts in the field.It's easy to become somewhat obsessed with fast radio bursts, a fascinating space mystery that has so far defied any attempts at a comprehensive explanation.To recap, FRBs are hugely energetic flares of radiation in the radio spectrum that last just a few milliseconds at most. In that timeframe, they can discharge as much power as .Most of them spark once, and we have never detected them again. This makes it rather difficult to track these bursts down to a source galaxy. Some FRBs spit out repeating radio flares, but wildly unpredictably. These are easier to track to a galaxy, but so far, that hasn't brought us a great deal closer to an explanation., the CHIME collaboration announced they had detected a whopping eight new repeating fast radio bursts, bringing the then-total of repeaters to 10 out of over 150 FRB sources. (Another paper .)FRB 180916.J0158+65 was among the eight repeaters included in last year's haul; apart from its repeat bursts, initially it didn't appear to be anything special. But as the CHIME experiment continued to stare at the sky, a pattern emerged.This is exciting, because it offers new information that can be used to try and model what could be causing FRB 180916.J0158+65."The discovery of a 16.35-day periodicity in a repeating FRB source is an important clue to the nature of this object," .Other objects that demonstrate periodicity tend to be binary systems - stars and . The 16.35-day period could be the orbital period, with the FRB object only facing Earth during a certain part of the orbit.FRB 180916.J0158+65 is one of the handful of FRBs that have been traced back to a galaxy. It's , in a star-forming region. This means a supermassive is unlikely, but a stellar-mass black hole is possible."The single constraint on the orbital period still allows several orders of magnitude range in companion mass amongst known stellar-mass compact object binaries: from so-called '' binary systems, consisting of a low-mass star and a powerful millisecond whose wind ablates the companion (albeit typically with few-hour orbital periods), to massive O/B stars with highly eccentric companion pulsar orbits," .Alternatively, winds from the companion object, or tidal disruptions from a black hole, may periodically somehow block the FRB radiation.It also can't be ruled out that the FRB source is a single, lone object such as a magnetar or X-ray pulsar, although the researchers note this explanation is a little harder to reconcile with the data. That's because those objects have a wobbling rotation that produces periodicity, and none are known to wobble that slowly.And radio that do have periodic intervals of several days are orders of magnitude fainter than FRBs.&nbsp;So it's still a mystery.But remember ? It was found coming from an FRB astronomers had thought was a one-off; its repeats were simply too faint for the equipment that had initially been used to look for them.This suggests that many more FRBs could be repeating, but outside our detection range. And the fact that FRB 180916.J0158+65 seemed more or less the same as other FRBs could mean that other repeating FRBs are also on a cycle - we just haven't detected those cycles yet.So, the next step would be, of course, to continue staring at FRB 180916.J0158+65 for a bit. But it also would be pretty interesting to try and see if periodicity can be detected in other bursts as well."Future observations, both intensity and polarimetric, and at all wavebands, could distinguish among models and are strongly encouraged," , "as are searches for periodicities in other repeaters, to see if the phenomenon is generic."The research is available on&nbsp;&nbsp;ahead of .

One of the defining characteristics of the mysterious deep-space signals we call is that they are unpredictable. They belch out across the cosmos without rhyme or reason, with no discernible pattern, making them incredibly hard to study.Now, for the first time, astronomers have found a ( ) that repeats on a regular cycle.Every 16.35 days, the signal named FRB 180916.J0158+65 follows a similar pattern. For four days, it will spit out a burst or two every hour. Then it falls silent for 12 days. Then the whole thing repeats.Astronomers with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment...

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Michelle Starr is a Senior Journalist at ScienceAlert, where her deep love and curiosity for the cosmos has made the publication a world leader in reporting developments in space research.  She is an award-winning journalist with over 15 years of experience in the science and technology sectors. Prior to joining the ScienceAlert team in 2017, she worked for seven years at CNET, where she created the role of Science Editor.

Powerful Radio Signal From Deep Space Appears to Be Repeating in a 16-Day Cycle

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