Abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are flashes of unknown physical origin1. The majority of FRBs have been seen only once, although some are known to generate multiple flashes2,3. Many models invoke magnetically powered neutron stars (magnetars) as the source of the emission4,5. Recently, the discovery6 of another repeater (FRB 20200120E) was announced, in the direction of the nearby galaxy M81, with four potential counterparts at other wavelengths6. Here we report observations that localized the FRB to a globular cluster associated with M81, where it is 2 parsecs away from the optical centre of the cluster. Globular clusters host old stellar populations, challenging FRB models that invoke young magnetars formed in a core-collapse supernova. We propose instead that FRB 20200120E originates from a highly magnetized neutron star formed either through the accretion-induced collapse of a white dwarf, or the merger of compact stars in a binary system7. Compact binaries are efficiently formed inside globular clusters, so a model invoking them could also be responsible for the observed bursts.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated from the EVN observations and analysed in this study are available at the Public EVN Data Archive under the experiment codes EK048B, EK048C and EK048F. The calibrated maps, plotting scripts and further data used in this manuscript are available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5708237.
Code availability
The codes used to analyse the data are available at the following sites: AIPS (http://www.aips.nrao.edu/index.shtml), CASA (https://casa.nrao.edu), Difmap (https://science.nrao.edu/facilities/vlba/docs/manuals/oss2013a/post-processing-software/difmap), DSPSR (http://dspsr.sourceforge.net), FETCH (https://github.com/devanshkv/fetch), Heimdall (https://sourceforge.net/projects/heimdall-astro), IRAF (https://iraf-community.github.io/), PRESTO (https://github.com/scottransom/presto), PSRCHIVE (http://psrchive.sourceforge.net), and SpS (https://github.com/danielemichilli/SpS).
References
Petroff, E., Hessels, J. W. T. & Lorimer, D. R. Fast radio bursts. Astron. Astrophys. Rev. 27, 4 (2019).
Spitler, L. G. et al. A repeating fast radio burst. Nature 531, 202–205 (2016).
The CHIME/FRB Collaboration. The first CHIME/FRB fast radio burst catalog. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 257, 59 (2021).
Margalit, B. & Metzger, B. D. A concordance picture of FRB 121102 as a flaring magnetar embedded in a magnetized ion–electron wind nebula. Astrophys. J. Lett. 868, 4 (2018).
The CHIME/FRB Collaboration. A bright millisecond-duration radio burst from a Galactic magnetar. Nature 587, 54–58 (2020).
Bhardwaj, M. et al. A nearby repeating fast radio burst in the direction of M81. Astrophys. J. Lett. 910, 18 (2021).
Margalit, B., Berger, E. & Metzger, B. D. Fast radio bursts from magnetars born in binary neutron star mergers and accretion induced collapse. Astrophys. J. 886, 110 (2019).
Freedman, W. L. et al. The Hubble Space Telescope Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project. I. The discovery of cepheids and a new distance to M81. Astrophys. J. 427, 628–655 (1994).
Lazarus, P. et al. Prospects for high-precision pulsar timing with the new Effelsberg PSRIX backend. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 458, 868–880 (2016).
Nimmo, K. et al. Burst timescales and luminosities link young pulsars and fast radio bursts. Nat. Astron., in the press (2022).
Keimpema, A. et al. The SFXC software correlator for very long baseline interferometry: algorithms and implementation. Exp. Astron. 39, 259–279 (2015).
Charlot, P. et al. The third realization of the International Celestial Reference Frame by very long baseline interferometry. Astron. Astrophys. 644, A159 (2020).
Perelmuter, J.-M., Brodie, J. P. & Huchra, J. P. Kinematics and metallicity of 25 globular clusters in M81. Astron. J. 110, 620–627 (1995).
Perelmuter, J.-M. & Racine, R. The globular cluster system of M81. Astron. J. 109, 1055–1070 (1995).
Moffat, A. F. J. A theoretical investigation of focal stellar images in the photographic emulsion and application to photographic photometry. Astron. Astrophys. 3, 455–461 (1969).
Gaia Collaboration. The Gaia mission. Astron. Astrophys. 595, A1 (2016).
Gaia Collaboration. Gaia Early Data Release 3: summary of the contents and survey properties. Astron. Astrophys. 649, A1 (2021).
Harris, W. E., Harris, G. L. H. & Alessi, M. A catalog of globular cluster systems: what determines the size of a galaxy’s globular cluster population? Astrophys. J. 772, 82 (2013).
Marcote, B. et al. A repeating fast radio burst source localized to a nearby spiral galaxy. Nature 577, 190–194 (2020).
Marcote, B. et al. The repeating fast radio burst FRB 121102 as seen on milliarcsecond angular scales. Astrophys. J. Lett. 834, L8 (2017).
Ajello, M. et al. The fourth catalog of active galactic nuclei detected by the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Astrophys. J. 892, 105 (2020).
Abdo, A. A. et al. Detection of gamma-ray emission from the starburst galaxies M82 and NGC 253 with the Large Area Telescope on Fermi. Astrophys. J. Lett. 709, L152–L157 (2010).
Hut, P. et al. Binaries in globular clusters. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 104, 981 (1992).
Pooley, D. et al. Dynamical formation of close binary systems in globular clusters. Astrophys. J. Lett. 591, L131–L134 (2003).
Verbunt, F. Binary evolution and neutron stars in globular clusters. In New Horizons in Globular Cluster Astronomy: Proceedings of a Conference Held at Università di Padova, Padova, Italy 24–28 June, 2002 (eds Piotto, G. et al.) 245–254 (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2003).
Wang, B. & Liu, D. The formation of neutron star systems through accretion-induced collapse in white-dwarf binaries. Res. Astron. Astrophys. 20, 135 (2020).
Giacomazzo, B. & Perna, R. Formation of stable magnetars from binary neutron star mergers. Astrophys. J. Lett. 771, L26 (2013).
Schwab, J., Quataert, E. & Kasen, D. The evolution and fate of super-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarf merger remnants. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 463, 3461–3475 (2016).
Zhong, S.-Q. & Dai, Z.-G. Magnetars from neutron star–white dwarf mergers: application to fast radio bursts. Astrophys. J. 893, 9 (2020).
Prager, B. J. et al. Using long-term millisecond pulsar timing to obtain physical characteristics of the bulge globular cluster Terzan 5. Astrophys. J. 845, 148 (2017).
Mottez, F. & Zarka, P. Radio emissions from pulsar companions: a refutable explanation for galactic transients and fast radio bursts. Astron. Astrophys. 569, A86 (2014).
Mottez, F., Zarka, P. & Voisin, G. Repeating fast radio bursts caused by small bodies orbiting a pulsar or a magnetar. Astron. Astrophys. 644, A145 (2020).
Ablimit, I. & Li, X.-D. Formation of binary millisecond pulsars by accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs under wind-driven evolution. Astrophys. J. 800, 98 (2015).
Ye, C. S., Kremer, K., Chatterjee, S., Rodriguez, C. L. & Rasio, F. A. Millisecond pulsars and black holes in globular clusters. Astrophys. J. 877, 122 (2019).
Heinke, C. O. et al. Analysis of the quiescent low-mass X-ray binary population in Galactic globular clusters. Astrophys. J. 598, 501–515 (2003).
Sridhar, N. et al. Periodic fast radio bursts from luminous X-ray binaries. Astrophys. J. 917, 13 (2021).
Kaaret, P., Feng, H. & Roberts, T. P. Ultraluminous X-ray sources. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 55, 303–341 (2017).
Bachetti, M. et al. An ultraluminous X-ray source powered by an accreting neutron star. Nature 514, 202–204 (2014).
Webb, N. et al. Radio detections during two state transitions of the intermediate-mass black hole HLX-1. Science 337, 554–556 (2012).
Dage, K. C. et al. X-ray spectroscopy of newly identified ULXs associated with M87’s globular cluster population. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 497, 596–608 (2020).
Chatterjee, S. et al. A direct localization of a fast radio burst and its host. Nature 541, 58–61 (2017).
Ravi, V. et al. The host galaxy and persistent radio counterpart of FRB 20201124A. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.09710 (2021).
Bassa, C. G. et al. FRB 121102 is coincident with a star-forming region in its host galaxy. Astrophys. J. Lett. 843, L8 (2017).
Tendulkar, S. P. et al. The 60 pc environment of FRB 20180916B. Astrophys. J. Lett. 908, L12 (2021).
Piro, L. et al. The fast radio burst FRB 20201124A in a star-forming region: constraints to the progenitor and multiwavelength counterparts. Astron. Astrophys. 656, L15 (2021).
Fong, W.-f et al. Chronicling the host galaxy properties of the remarkable repeating FRB 20201124A. Astrophys. J. Lett. 919, L23 (2021).
Remazeilles, M., Dickinson, C., Banday, A. J., Bigot-Sazy, M. A. & Ghosh, T. An improved source-subtracted and destriped 408-MHz all-sky map. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 451, 4311–4327 (2015).
Reich, P. & Reich, W. Spectral index variations of the galactic radio continuum emission : evidence for a galactic wind. Astron. Astrophys. 196, 211–226 (1988).
Mather, J. C. et al. Measurement of the cosmic microwave background spectrum by the COBE FIRAS instrument. Astrophys. J. 420, 439–444 (1994).
Whitney, A. et al. VLBI data interchange format (VDIF). In Sixth International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astronomy. Proceedings from the 2010 General Meeting (eds Navarro, R. et al.) 192–196 (NASA, 2010).
Whitney, A. The Mark 5B VLBI data system. In Proc. 7th European VLBI Network Symp. on VLBI Scientific Research and Technology (eds Bachiller, R et al.) 251–252 (EVN, 2004).
Kirsten, F. et al. Detection of two bright radio bursts from magnetar SGR 1935 + 2154. Nat. Astron. 5, 414–422 (2021).
Agarwal, D., Aggarwal, K., Burke-Spolaor, S., Lorimer, D. R. & Garver-Daniels, N. FETCH: a deep-learning based classifier for fast transient classification. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 497, 1661–1674 (2020).
Ransom, S. M. New Search Techniques for Binary Pulsars. PhD thesis, Harvard Univ. 2001).
Ransom, S. PRESTO: PulsaR Exploration and Search Toolkit. Astrophysics Source Code Library http://ascl.net/1107.017 (2011).
Michilli, D. et al. Single-pulse classifier for the LOFAR Tied-Array All-sky Survey. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 480, 3457–3467 (2018).
Greisen, E. W. AIPS, the VLA, and the VLBA. In Information Handling in Astronomy – Historical Vistas (ed. Heck, A.) 109–125 (Kluwer Academic, 2003).
Shepherd, M. C., Pearson, T. J. & Taylor, G. B. DIFMAP: an interactive program for synthesis imaging. Bull. Am. Astron. Soc. 26, 987–989 (1994).
Law, C. J. et al. realfast: real-time, commensal fast transient surveys with the Very Large Array. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 236, 8 (2018).
Polisensky, E. et al. Exploring the transient radio sky with VLITE: early results. Astrophys. J. 832, 60 (2016).
Clarke, T. E. et al. Commensal low frequency observing on the NRAO VLA: VLITE status and future plans. In Proc. SPIE 9906: Ground-based and Airborne Telescopes VI (eds Hall, H. J. et al.) 99065B (SPIE, 2016).
Bethapudi, S. et al. The first fast radio burst detected with VLITE-Fast. Res. Not. Am. Astron. Soc. 5, 46 (2021).
Cotton, W. D. Obit: a development environment for astronomical algorithms. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 120, 439–448 (2008).
Offringa, A. R. et al. WSCLEAN: an implementation of a fast, generic wide-field imager for radio astronomy. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 444, 606–619 (2014).
Miyazaki, S. et al. Hyper Suprime-Cam. In Proc. SPIE 8446: Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy IV (eds McLean, I. S. et al.) 84460Z (SPIE, 2012).
Bosch, J. et al. The Hyper Suprime-Cam software pipeline. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 70, S5 (2018).
Flewelling, H. A. et al. The Pan-STARRS1 database and data products. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 251, 7 (2020).
Garmire, G. P. et al. Advanced CCD imaging spectrometer (ACIS) instrument on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. In Proc. SPIE 4851: X-ray and Gamma-ray Telescopes and Instruments for Astronomy (eds Truemper, J. E. & Tananbaum, H. D.) 28–44 (SPIE, 2003).
Fruscione, A. et al. CIAO: Chandra’s data analysis system. In Proc. SPIE 6270: Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems (eds Silva, D. R. & Doxsey, R. E.) 62701V (2006).
Kraft, R. P., Burrows, D. N. & Nousek, J. A. Determination of confidence limits for experiments with low numbers of counts. Astrophys. J. 374, 344–355 (1991).
Ballet, J., Burnett, T. H., Digel, S. W. & Lott, B. Fermi Large Area Telescope Fourth Source Catalog. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2005.11208 (2020).
Abdo, A. A. et al. A population of gamma-ray emitting globular clusters seen with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Astron. Astrophys. 524, A75 (2010).
Hessels, J. W. T. et al. FRB 121102 bursts show complex time-frequency structure. Astrophys. J. Lett. 876, L23 (2019).
Kirsten, F., Vlemmings, W., Campbell, R. M., Kramer, M. & Chatterjee, S. Revisiting the birth locations of pulsars B1929+10, B2020+28, and B2021+51. Astron. Astrophys. 577, A111 (2015).
Condon, J. J. et al. Resolving the radio source background: deeper understanding through confusion. Astrophys. J. 758, 23 (2012).
Beck, R. et al. PS1-STRM: neural network source classification and photometric redshift catalogue for PS1 3π DR1. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 500, 1633–1644 (2021).
Bloom, J. S., Kulkarni, S. R. & Djorgovski, S. G. The observed offset distribution of gamma-ray bursts from their host galaxies: a robust clue to the nature of the progenitors. Astrophys. J. 123, 1111–1148 (2002).
Leja, J., Johnson, B. D., Conroy, C., van Dokkum, P. G. & Byler, N. Deriving physical properties from broadband photometry with Prospector: description of the model and a demonstration of its accuracy using 129 galaxies in the local Universe. Astrophys. J. 837, 170 (2017).
Johnson, B. D., Leja, J. L., Conroy, C. & Speagle, J. S. Prospector: stellar population inference from spectra and SEDs. Astrophysics Source Code Library http://ascl.net/1905.025 (2019).
Alam, S. et al. The eleventh and twelfth data releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: final data from SDSS-III. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 219, 12 (2015).
Simha, V. et al. Parametrising star formation histories. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/1404.0402 (2014).
Carnall, A. C. et al. How to measure galaxy star formation histories. I. Parametric models. Astrophys. J. 873, 44 (2019).
Draine, B. T. & Li, A. Infrared emission from interstellar dust. IV. The silicate–graphite–PAH model in the post-Spitzer era. Astrophys. J. 657, 810–837 (2007).
Bertelli, G., Bressan, A., Chiosi, C., Fagotto, F. & Nasi, E. Theoretical isochrones from models with new radiative opacities. Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. Ser. 106, 275–302 (1994).
Ma, J. et al. Metal abundance properties of M81 globular cluster system. Publ. Astron. Soc. Pac. 119, 1085–1092 (2007).
Kremer, K. et al. White dwarf subsystems in core-collapsed globular clusters. Astrophys. J. 917, 28 (2021).
Ye, C. S. et al. On the rate of neutron star binary mergers from globular clusters. Astrophys. J. Lett. 888, L10 (2020).
Boyles, J. et al. Young radio pulsars in Galactic globular clusters. Astrophys. J. 742, 51 (2011).
Hessels, J. et al. Pulsars in globular clusters with the SKA. In Advancing Astrophysics with the Square Kilometre Array (AASKA14) 47 (2015).
Lyne, A. G., Manchester, R. N. & D’Amico, N. PSR B1745-20 and young pulsars in globular clusters. Astrophys. J. Lett. 460, L41 (1996).
Macquart, J. P. et al. A census of baryons in the Universe from localized fast radio bursts. Nature 581, 391–395 (2020).
Cordes, J. M. & Lazio, T. J. W. NE2001.I. A new model for the Galactic distribution of free electrons and its fluctuations. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0207156 (2002).
Yao, J. M., Manchester, R. N. & Wang, N. A new electron-density model for estimation of pulsar and FRB distances. Astrophys. J. 835, 29 (2017).
Keating, L. C. & Pen, U.-L. Exploring the dispersion measure of the Milky Way halo. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 496, L106–L110 (2020).
Yamasaki, S. & Totani, T. The Galactic halo contribution to the dispersion measure of extragalactic fast radio bursts. Astrophys. J. 888, 105 (2020).
Prochaska, J. X. & Zheng, Y. Probing Galactic haloes with fast radio bursts. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 485, 648–665 (2019).
Hutschenreuter, S. et al. The Galactic Faraday rotation sky 2020. Astron. Astrophys. 657, A43 (2022).
The CHIME/FRB Collaboration. CHIME/FRB discovery of eight new repeating fast radio burst sources. Astrophys. J. Lett. 885, L24 (2019).
Michilli, D. et al. An extreme magneto-ionic environment associated with the fast radio burst source FRB 121102. Nature 553, 182–185 (2018).
Hobbs, G., Manchester, R., Teoh, A. & Hobbs, M. The ATNF Pulsar Catalog. In IAU Symp. No. 218: Young Neutron Stars and Their Environments (eds Camilo, F. & Gaensler, B. M.) 139–140 (Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2004).
Karachentsev, I. D. The local group and other neighboring galaxy groups. Astron. J. 129, 178–188 (2005).
Schlegel, D. J., Finkbeiner, D. P. & Davis, M. Maps of dust infrared emission for use in estimation of reddening and cosmic microwave background radiation foregrounds. Astrophys. J. 500, 525–553 (1998).
Acknowledgements
We thank the directors and staff at the various participating stations for allowing us to use their facilities and running the observations. The European VLBI Network is a joint facility of independent European, African, Asian and North American radio astronomy institutes. Scientific results from data presented in this publication are derived from the following EVN project code: EK048. This work was also based on simultaneous EVN and PSRIX data recording observations with the 100-m telescope of the MPIfR (Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie) at Effelsberg, and we thank the local staff for this arrangement. We would like to express our gratitude to W. van Straten for modifying the DSPSR software package to fit our needs. We appreciate discussions about magnetar formation scenarios in a globular cluster environment with E. P. J. van den Heuvel. Research by the AstroFlash group at University of Amsterdam, ASTRON and JIVE is supported in part by an NWO Vici grant (principal investigator (PI) J.W.T.H.; VI.C.192.045). This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements 730562 (RadioNet) and 101004719 (OPTICON-RadioNet Pilot). A.B.P. is a McGill Space Institute (MSI) Fellow and a Fonds de Recherche du Quebec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT) postdoctoral fellow. B.M. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) under grant AYA2016-76012-C3-1-P and from the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación under grants PID2019-105510GB-C31 and CEX2019-000918-M of ICCUB (Unidad de Excelencia “María de Maeztu” 2020–2023). Basic research in radio astronomy at NRL is funded by 6.1 Base funding. Construction and installation of VLITE was supported by the NRL Sustainment Restoration and Maintenance fund. C.J.L. acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation grant 2022546. C.L. was supported by the US Department of Defense (DoD) through the National Defense Science & Engineering Graduate Fellowship (NDSEG) programme. D.M. is a Banting Fellow. E.P. acknowledges funding from an NWO Veni Fellowship. F.K. acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council via grant no. 2014-05713. FRB research at UBC is supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant and by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. J.Yuan is supported by the National Program on Key Research and Development Project (2017YFA0402602). K.S. is supported by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program. K.W.M. is supported by an NSF Grant (2008031). M.Bhardwaj is supported by an FRQNT Doctoral Research Award. N.W. acknowledges support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 12041304 and 11873080) P.S. is a Dunlap Fellow and an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow. The Dunlap Institute is funded through an endowment established by the David Dunlap family and the University of Toronto. Part of this research was carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The NANOGrav project receives support from National Science Foundation (NSF) Physics Frontiers Center award number 1430284. B.M.G. acknowledges the support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) through grant RGPIN-2015-05948, and of the Canada Research Chairs programme. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. S.M.R. is a CIFAR Fellow and is supported by the NSF Physics Frontiers Center award 1430284. This work is based in part on observations carried out using the 32-m radio telescope operated by the Institute of Astronomy of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń (Poland) and supported by a Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education SpUB grant. This work is based in part on observations carried out using the 32-m Badary, Svetloe and Zelenchukskaya radio telescopes operated by the Scientific Equipment Sharing Center of the Quasar VLBI Network (Russia). The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is funded by the Department of University and Research (MIUR), the Italian Space Agency (ASI), and the Autonomous Region of Sardinia (RAS) and is operated as National Facility by the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). V.B. acknowledges support from the Engineering Research Institute Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC). V.M.K. holds the Lorne Trottier Chair in Astrophysics & Cosmology and a Distinguished James McGill Professorship and receives support from an NSERC Discovery Grant and Herzberg Award, from an R. Howard Webster Foundation Fellowship from the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), and from the FRQNT Centre de Recherche en Astrophysique du Quebec. We received support from Ontario Research Fund – Research Excellence (ORF-RE) programme, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC; funding reference number RGPIN-2019-067, CRD 523638-201, 555585-20), Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR), Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the National Science Foundation of China (grant no. 11929301), Simons Foundation, Thoth Technology Inc, and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Computations were performed on the SOSCIP Consortium’s (Blue Gene/Q, Cloud Data Analytics, Agile and/or Large Memory System) computing platform(s). SOSCIP is funded by the Federal Economic Development Agency of Southern Ontario, the Province of Ontario, IBM Canada Ltd., Ontario Centres of Excellence, Mitacs and 15 Ontario academic member institutions. Based (in part) on data collected at Subaru Telescope, which is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. AIPS is a software package produced and maintained by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
F.K. is the Principal Investigator of the PRECISE team; he organized the observations, found the five bursts in the raw voltages and coordinated writing of the manuscript. B.M. led the analysis of the correlated data, performed the localization and wrote parts of the manuscript. K.N. led the time-domain analysis of the bursts. J.W.T.H. led the interpretation of the results and wrote parts of the manuscript. M.Bhardwaj led and performed the modelling of [PR95] 30244. S.P.T. performed the data reduction and analysis of the Subaru data. A.K. wrote and modified the software correlator SFXC to allow for the highest time resolution data. J.Yang assisted with the data reduction, analysis and interpretation of the correlated data. M.P.S. helped with the manuscript and created Extended Data Fig. 1. P.S. and A.B.P. reduced and analysed the archival Chandra data. C.J.L. reduced and analysed the Realfast data. W.M.P. reduced and analysed the VLITE data. M.G. and A.B.P. searched the Fermi catalogues. Z.P. assisted with the reduction and analysis of the correlated data. C.B. assessed the optical registration errors of the Subaru and Gaia images. D.M.H. searched the PSRIX and DFB data for bursts. U.B. coordinated and performed the observations at Effelsberg. V.B. coordinated and performed the observations at Irbene. M.Burgay helped commission the dual recording mode at SRT. S.T.B. coordinated and performed the observations at Noto. J.E.C. supported the observations at Onsala. A.C. implemented the dual recording mode at SRT and performed some of the observations. R.F. supports the observations at Toruń. O.F. wrote observing schedules. M.P.G. coordinated and performed the observations at Toruń. R.K. assisted with the dual recording at Effelsberg. M.A.K. supports the observations at Badary, Svetloe and Zelenchukskaya. M.L. supported the observations at Onsala and assisted with the manuscript. G.M. coordinated and performed the observations at Medicina. A.M. coordinated and performed the observations at Badary, Svetloe and Zelenchukskaya. A.G.M. supports the data transfer of the observations at Badary, Svetloe and Zelenchukskaya. O.S.O.-B. wrote observing schedules. A.P. supported the observations at SRT. G.S. ran most of the observations at SRT. N.W. and J.Yuan coordinated and performed the observations at Urumqi. V.M.K. played a significant coordination role that enabled these results. All other co-authors contributed to the CHIME/FRB discovery of the source or the interpretation of the analysis results and the final version of the manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature thanks Anthony Walters and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Peer reviewer reports are available.
Additional information
Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Fig. 1 DM and rotation measure (RM) maps around FRB 20200120E.
a, Expected Galactic DM contribution (background) according to the YMW16 model disk contribution only93, the DM of FRB 20200120E (pentagon) and the DMs of known pulsars from the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue in this field (circles)100. b, Physical Galactic Faraday depth ϕg (background)97, the RM of FRB 20200120E (pentagon) and Galactic pulsars with a known RM (circles). We assume that theRM6 of FRB 20200120E is −36.9 rad m−2.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Modelling the SED of [PR95] 30244.
The Milky Way extinction corrected flux densities of [PR95] 30244 in different wavelength bands are plotted, along with the best-fit Prospector model spectrum. To assess the quality of the Prospector model, the modelled and actual photometric data are also shown. The best-fit model profile is used to estimate the physical properties of [PR95] 30244 stated in Extended Data Table 3. Finally, the shaded region around the best-fit profile is the 1σ uncertainty region.
Extended Data Fig. 3 MCMC simulation corner plot.
The posterior probability distributions are shown for each of the five model parameters along the diagonal panels, and the correlations between model parameter posteriors are shown along the columns. Above each probability distribution, the median of the parameter posterior is printed, along with the 1σ error bars.
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kirsten, F., Marcote, B., Nimmo, K. et al. A repeating fast radio burst source in a globular cluster. Nature 602, 585–589 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04354-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-04354-w
This article is cited by
-
Detection of ultra-fast radio bursts from FRB 20121102A
Nature Astronomy (2023)
-
An assessment of the association between a fast radio burst and binary neutron star merger
Nature Astronomy (2023)
-
A highly magnetized environment in a pulsar binary system
Nature (2023)
-
Cosmology with fast radio bursts in the era of SKA
Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy (2023)
-
Fast radio bursts at the dawn of the 2020s
The Astronomy and Astrophysics Review (2022)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
