Scientists find more bright blasts of energy coming from space – and they are getting closer to knowing where they are coming from

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Scientists have detected two bright radio bursts from a magnetar in our galaxy, as they get closer to discovering the source of the blasts.

Earlier this month, scientists discovered that fast radio bursts were coming from the object, in a major breakthrough in the search for the source of those mysterious blasts of energy. It was the first time an FRB had been detected coming from inside our Milky Way, and also the first time such a blast had been traced back to a particular source.

Now scientists say they have found new bursts coming from that same magnetar. That should help further indicate whether it is really a source of FRBs – and whether the same process could be powering those bursts we have discovered coming from elsewhere in the universe.

Fast radio bursts are very short, very powerful blasts of radio energy that are sent through the universe. Though they are as short as a fraction of a millisecond, they can send out as much energy as the Sun does in days – they are mostly unpredictable, but some have been found on a repeating schedule.

Astronomers have been hunting for an explanation for the bursts since 2007, when the first was discovered. Possible origins have included everything from dying stars and black holes to alien technology.

That hunt has been mostly elusive, and it is still not clear what exactly is causing the bursts. But scientists got much closer this year, when they discovered what appeared to be one of the bursts coming from inside our own galaxy, and tracked the source down to a magnetar, or a neutron star with an incredibly powerful magnetic field.

A few days after that finding, researchers detected much fainter bursts coming from the same source, which is officially known as SGR1935+2154. It seems to have similarities to other repeating fast radio bursts that were detected earlier and outside of our galaxy.

Researchers hope that the discovery of the following blasts, as well as deeper work to understand how active the source is, can help show whether it definitely is similar to the source of other FRBs that have come to us from outside of our galaxy.

The researchers conclude that the magnetar in our galaxy “makes a compelling case that there is a link between (at least some) FRBs and magnetars”. There are still some key questions, however, and scientists say that further monitoring of the object known as SGR1935+2154 could help answer them.

They write that the blasts seemingly coming from the magnetar are “not a flawless analogue” of the FRBs that come to us from outside of the galaxy. But that does not mean that those extragalactic FRBs could not be explained by magnetars – the differences may be a consequence of the fact that the ones outside our galaxy are younger, and therefore brighter and more active.

The research is described a new paper published in Nature Astronomy and titled ‘Detection of two bright radio bursts from magnetar SGR 1935 + 2154’.