Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • NEWS AND VIEWS

Unexpected emission pattern adds to the enigma of fast radio bursts

Observations of millisecond-long radio bursts from beyond the Milky Way have revealed a repeat pattern with a roughly 16-day period — a finding that adds to the enigma of the origin of these bursts.
  1. Bing Zhang

    1. Bing Zhang is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada 89154, USA.

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed  Google Scholar

Mysterious flashes of radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation, which last for just a few milliseconds, have baffled astrophysicists since their discovery1 in 2007. Originating from outside the Milky Way2, most of these fast radio bursts (FRBs) seem to be one-off events, but some sporadically emit repeated signals3. In a paper in Nature, the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) Collaboration4 reports the first FRB source that produces an intriguingly regular pattern of bursts, with a period of about 16 days.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Nature 582, 344-346 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01713-x

References

  1. Lorimer, D. R., Bailes, M., McLaughlin, M. A., Narkevic, D. J. & Crawford, F. Science 318, 777–780 (2007).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Petroff, E., Hessels, J. W. T. & Lorimer, D. R. Astron. Astrophys. Rev. 27, 4 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Spitler, L. G. et al. Nature 531, 202–205 (2016).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. The CHIME/FRB Collaboration. Nature 582, 351–355 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. The CHIME/FRB Collaboration. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1908.03507 (2019).

  6. Vaughan, S. et al. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 461, 3145–3152 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Platts, E. et al. Phys. Rep. 821, 1–27 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Popov, S. B. & Postnov, K. A. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/0710.2006 (2007).

  9. Cordes, J. M. & Wasserman, I. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 457, 232–257 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Kaspi, V. M. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 7147–7152 (2010).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. McLaughlin, M. A. et al. Nature 439, 817–820 (2006).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Zhang, Y. G. et al. Astrophys. J. 866, 149 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Ioka, K. & Zhang, B. Astrophys. J. 893, L26 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Lyutikov, M., Barkov, M. V. & Giannios, D. Astrophys. J. 893, L39 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Zhang, B. Astrophys. J. 836, L32 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Levin, Y., Beloborodov, A. M. & Bransgrove, A. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.04595 (2020).

  17. Zanazzi, J. J. & Lai, D. Astrophys. J. 892, L15 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Yang, H. & Zou, Y.-C. Astrophys. J. 893, L31 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Beniamini, P., Wadiasingh, Z. & Metzger, B. D. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.12509 (2020).

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links