astronomer have light upon their twenty-second quick radio volley ( FRB ) and it has them buzz . This is because the mysterious signal , which only lasted a few msec , had to cross a very peculiar region of the Milky Way to get to us .
The signal , known as FRB 150215 , was detected as it happened on February 15 , 2015 , by theParkes Telescopein Australia , a facility that has now become synonymous with the hunt for FRBs . Thestudyhas been accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society .
Finding FRB 150215 is great enough in itself , but it ’s even better than other detections as it was recorded live . This allowed astronomers to collect a lot more entropy , like the polarization of the wireless spark . When visible light is polarized , the electrical fields point in the same direction . The team measure that 43 percent of the lighter from FRB 150215 was linearly polarized .
Out of the 22 known FRBs , only four had their polarisation measured . One with no polarization , one with linear , one circular , and one both linear and circular . For FRB 150215 , investigator were able-bodied to go one step further . They value the Faraday rotation of polarization due to magnetic fields . That allow them to ferment out the magnetic fields between us and the beginning . The more magnetic fields , the bad the Faraday rotation .
And what they discovered is that this amount was zero for FRB 150215 . This signaling traveled through a dense region of the Milky Way that has , surprisingly , very small magnetized interaction . This is passably weird .
“ This FRB seems to have found a very strange sightline through the Galaxy , perhaps why we cope to find it given such a dull foreground , ” lead generator Emily Petroff compose in atweet .
The research worker judge to depend at what actually bring about the signal . They were capable to speedily follow - up the sleuthing with 11 telescopes . These instruments bet for signals in gamma - ray , wireless moving ridge , ten - ray , ocular , and neutrino emissions , but they were n’t able to find the source .
“ No precise emplacement was determined for FRB 150215 ; however , the experimental evidence from the fusillade itself is logical with an origin outside the Milky Way , ” the team indite in thepaper .
So far , onlyFRB 121102has had its source describe . And that ’s a source like no other since it ’s an FRB that repeats itself . stargazer are still incertain of what get these signal , but every single one gives us more clues about where they add up from .
