The short pulses of cosmic radiation that bombard the Earth are associated with the oscillations of neutron stars. Japanese scientists from the University of Tokyo came to this conclusion. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) were discovered in 2007. They approach our planet from space, traveling billions of light-years and being so powerful that they can dwarf the entire galaxy they come from. Such events are not visible to the human eye but are recorded by radio telescopes. Sometimes up to 10 thousand FRBs appear in the sky above the Earth per day. Until recently, the origin of these events was unknown.
Japanese researchers believe FRBs are caused by tremors on the surface of neutron stars. Neutron stars are superdense objects with a mass of one to two times that of the Sun and a diameter of about 20 km, resulting from the explosion of massive stars.
Young neutron stars, also known as magnetars, have exceptionally strong magnetic fields. Astronomers believe that when they are bent, the surface of the celestial body begins to shake.
“Theoretically, it was believed that a starquake could occur on the surface of a magnetar, a release of energy similar to earthquakes on Earth. Recent discoveries have identified thousands of FRBs, so we took the opportunity to compare large statistical datasets of radio bursts with data from earthquakes and solar flares to investigate possible similarities,” said study author Tomonori Totani.
The team examined the timing and energy emissions of nearly 7,000 repeated FRB bursts using the same method used to study the time-energy correlation of both earthquakes and solar flares. Scientists have discovered significant similarities between tectonic events on Earth and cosmic radio pulses.
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