Posted on 01/12/2022 12:52:43 PM PST by BenLurkin
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense bursts of radio emission lasting milliseconds and showcasing characteristic dispersion sweep of radio pulsars. The physical nature of these bursts is yet unknown, and astronomers consider a variety of explanations ranging from synchrotron maser emission from young magnetars in supernova remnants to cosmic string cusps.
FRB 121102 is the first repeating fast radio burst detected and one of the most extensively studied FRB sources. It exhibits complex burst morphology, sub-burst downward frequency drifts, and also complex pulse phenomenology. FRB 121102 is also one of only two FRBs reported to be spatially associated with persistent radio emission of unknown origin.
A team of astronomers led by Caltech's Ge Chen took a closer look at this persistent radio source. For this purpose, they observed QRS121102 with the G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and the Low-Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (LRIS) at the Keck Observatory.
Given that QRS121102 may be an AGN, the astronomers constrained the mass of the potential black hole. They found that this mass would be lower than 100,000 solar masses, which does not support the AGN scenario as this source is too faint in the X-ray for its calculated low black hole mass and bright radio emission.
The radio luminosity of QRS121102, from 400 MHz to 10 GHz, was measured to be approximately 20 billion TW/Hz. Therefore, according to the researchers, this source is too luminous to be an SNR. It was added that QRS121102 is also too bright to be a long-duration GRB (LGRB) radio afterglow.
Summing up the results, the researchers noted that it is too early to draw final conclusions regarding the true origin of QRS121102 and further observations are required in order to get more insights into the nature of this source.
(Excerpt) Read more at phys.org ...
I've dated a few girls like that. Thankfully I have outgrown it.
I've never heard it described quite like that before.
Decoded signal is W..K..R..P in Sagitarius
Thanks BenLurkin.
If the universe were tiny, we'd call it a puniverse.
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