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A fast radio burst in our own Galaxy

The origins of millisecond-long bursts of radio emissions, known as fast radio bursts, from beyond our Galaxy have been enigmatic. The detection of one such burst from a Galactic source helps to constrain the theories.
  1. Amanda Weltman

    1. Amanda Weltman is in the High Energy Physics, Cosmology and Astrophysics Theory Group, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, Cape Town, South Africa.

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  2. Anthony Walters

    1. Anthony Walters is in the High Energy Physics, Cosmology and Astrophysics Theory Group, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, Cape Town, South Africa.

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Sometimes, being an astrophysicist is an exercise in international detective work. Piecing together the evidence is complicated, because observations are often made after a key event, the experiments are not generally repeatable and, when it comes to telescopes, it is all about location, location, location. Three papers1–3 in this issue of Nature report exactly this situation in the detection of a phenomenon called a fast radio burst (FRB) coming from a source in our Galaxy. Intriguingly, the FRB was accompanied by a burst of X-rays4–6. The discovery was made and understood by piecing together observations from multiple space- and ground-based telescopes, and should help us to work out the mechanisms that drive these spectacular events.

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Nature 587, 43-44 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-03018-5

References

  1. The CHIME/FRB Collaboration. Nature 587, 54–58 (2020).

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  4. Mereghetti, S. et al. Astron. Telegram 13685 (2020).

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  11. Metzger, B. D., Fang, K. & Margalit, B. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.12318 (2020).

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