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Astronomers trace mysterious fast radio burst to extreme, rare star – CNET

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Sifting through a trove of radio telescope data in 2007, Duncan Lorimer, an astrophysicist at West Virginia University, spotted something unusual. Data obtained six years earlier showed a brief, energetic burst, lasting no more than 5 milliseconds. Others had seen the blip and looked past it, but Lorimer and his team calculated that it was an entirely new phenomenon: a signal emanating from somewhere far outside the Milky Way.

The team had no idea what had caused it but they published their results in Science. The mysterious signal became known as a “fast radio burst,” or FRB. In the 13 years since Lorimer’s discovery, dozens of FRBs have been discovered outside of the Milky Way — some repeating and others ephemeral, single chirps. Astrophysicists have been able to pinpoint their home galaxies, but they’ve struggled to identify the cosmic culprit, putting forth all sorts of theories, from exotic physics to alien civilizations

On Wednesday, a trio of studies in the journal Nature describes the source of the first FRB discovered within the Milky Way, revealing the mechanism behind at least some of the highly energetic radio blasts.

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The newly described burst, dubbed FRB 200428, was discovered and located after it pinged radio antennas in the US and Canada on April 28, 2020. A hurried hunt followed, with teams of researchers around the globe focused on studying the FRB across the electromagnetic spectrum. It was quickly determined that FRB 200428 is the most energetic radio pulse ever detected in our home galaxy. 

In the suite of new papers, astrophysicists outline their detective work and breakthrough observations from a handful of ground- and space-based telescopes. Linking together concordant observations, researchers pin FRB 200428 on one of the most unusual wonders of the cosmos: a magnetar, the hypermagnetic remains of a dead supergiant star. 

It’s the first time astrophysicists have been able to finger a culprit in the intergalactic whodunit — but this is just the beginning. “There really is a lot more to be learned going forward,” says Amanda Weltman, an astrophysicist at the University of Cape Town and author of a Nature news article accompanying the discovery. 

“This is just the first exciting step.”

Under pressure

To understand where FRB 200428 begins, you have to understand where a star ends.

Stars many times larger than the sun are known to experience a messy death. After they’ve exhausted all their fuel, physics conspires against them; their immense size places unfathomable pressure on their core. Gravity forces the star to fold in on itself, causing an implosion that releases huge amounts of energy in an event known as a supernova. 

The star’s crumpled core, born under extreme pressure, is left behind. Except now it’s very small, only about the size of a city, and around 1 million times more dense than the Earth. This stellar zombie is known as a neutron star. 

Some neutron stars have extreme magnetic fields, about 1,000 times stronger than typical neutron stars. They’re a mysterious and intriguing class unto themselves. Astronomers call them “magnetars,” and they’re as curious as FRBs, with only about 30 discovered so far. 

See also: These telescopes work with your phone to show exactly what’s in the sky

One such magnetar in the Milky Way is officially known as SGR 1935+2154, which refers to its position in the sky. To make things easier, let’s nickname it Mag-1. It was first discovered in 2014 and is located around 30,000 light-years from Earth. On April 27, 2020, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope picked up a spike in X-rays and gamma-rays emanating from Mag-1. 

The next day, two huge North American telescopes — the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) and the Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2 (STARE2) — picked up an extremely energetic radio burst coming from the same region of space: FRB 200428. The FRB and Mag-1 were in the exact same galactic neighborhood. Or rather, they seemed to be in the same galactic house. 

“These observations point to magnetars as a smoking gun of an FRB,” says Lorimer, lead author on the 2007 discovery of the first radio burst. Magnetars had been theorized as potential FRB sources previously, but the data provides direct evidence linking the two cosmic phenomena together.

However, just co-locating the burst with the magnetar doesn’t explain everything.

“Magnetars occasionally produce bursts of bright X-ray emission,” says Adam Deller, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia, “but most magnetars have never been seen to emit any radio emission.”

Don’t stop me now

Associating Mag-1 with FRB 200428 is just the beginning of a long-term investigation. 

In the cosmic whodunit, astronomers have found a culprit, but they’re not exactly sure of the murder weapon. 

Studying the FRB, researchers were able to determine it was highly energetic but paled in comparison to some deep space FRBs previously discovered. “It was almost as luminous as the weakest FRBs we’ve detected,” says Marcus Lower, an astronomy Ph.D. at Swinburne University studying neutron stars. This suggests magnetars may be responsible for some FRBs but not all of them — some seem far too energetic to be produced in the same way FRB 200428 was.

Another paper in Nature on Wednesday sees researchers using China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) to study Mag-1 during one of its X-ray outbursts. The telescope did not pick up any radio emission from the magnetar during its outbursts. That means it’s unlikely such an outburst, alone, is responsible for spewing highly energetic FRBs. “It’s definite that not every magnetar X-ray burst fires off an accompanying radio burst,” says Deller. 

Deller also notes that FRB 200428 shows characteristics similar to those seen in repeating FRBs from outside the Milky Way.


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This is important because, at present, astronomers have observed two types of FRBs in other galaxies. There are those that  flash to life and disappear, and others that appear to be repeating with regular rhythm. FRB 200428 looks like a repeater, but much weaker. Further observations by the CHIME telescope in October detected more radio bursts from the magnetar, though this work hasn’t yet been published.

All in all, there’s still some uncertainty. “We cannot say for certain if magnetars are the sources of all of the FRBs observed to date,” Weltman notes. 

Another question: How did Mag-1 generate the FRB? Two different mechanisms have been proposed. 

One suggestion is magnetars produce radio waves just as they do X-rays and gamma-rays in their magnetosphere, the huge region of extreme magnetic fields surrounding the star. The other is a little more complex. “The magnetar could live in a cloud of material hanging around from previous outflows,” says Adelle Goodwin, an astrophysicist at Curtin University who was not affiliated with the study. This cloud of material, Goodwin notes, could then be slammed into by an X-ray or gamma-ray outburst, transferring energy into radio waves. Those waves then travel through the cosmos and ping Earth’s detectors as an FRB. 

It’s not clear which mechanism resulted in FRB 200428 — or if something more exotic might be happening. Other researchers have suggested FRBs may even be caused by asteroids slamming into a magnetar, for instance. But one thing now seems certain: it’s not alien civilizations trying to contact us. Sorry.

Radio ga-ga

There’s still a great deal of work to be done in unraveling the mystery of fast radio bursts. 

For Deller, the hunt continues. Part of his work is focused on where FRBs originate. He says his team still needs to collect more data, but there’s a chance that repeating FRBs may inhabit different types of galaxies from those FRBs which don’t repeat. Weltman notes the search for other signals will also intensify, with astronomers looking for electromagnetic radiation and neutrinos that are generated from any magnetar-produced FRB. 

The investigation will, ultimately, change the way we see the universe. Duncan Lorimer notes that if FRBs can be definitively linked to neutron stars, it would provide a way to take a census of those extreme cosmic entities. Current methods can’t identify neutron star types with great specificity — but FRBs could change that. And FRBs are already changing the way we see things. A study published in Nature earlier this year used FRBs to solve a decades-old problem about the universe’s “missing matter.” 

Lorimer says many of the predictions his team made after discovering the first FRB in 2007 “have been realized in some way” and he always hoped FRBs could become part of the mainstream. As the mysteries deepen, they’ve surpassed his expectations. They’ve become one of astrophysics’ most perplexing but intriguing phenomena. 

“It continues to be a fascinating adventure,” he says.

Want the latest space stories in your inbox every week? Sign up for the CNET Science newsletter here.

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Solar eclipse April 8 – South Grey News

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March 28, 2024

Graphic: Appalachian Mtn Club

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Grey Bruce Public Health is urging residents to resist the temptation to look directly at the sun during the upcoming solar eclipse and take steps to safeguard their visual health during this relatively rare celestial event.

On April 8, 2024, parts of southern and eastern Ontario will experience a total solar eclipse for the first time since 1925. Grey-Bruce will be outside of the so-called Path of Totality — a narrow area where the moon will completely block out the sun — but will still experience a partial eclipse.

The eclipse is expected to begin at about 2 pm and continue until 4:30 pm The eclipse will peak around 3:20 pm.

It is never safe to stare directly at the sun, but it may be tempting to do so during a solar eclipse.

Looking directly at the sun during an eclipse can cause retinal burns, blurred vision, and/or temporary or permanent loss of visual function, according to the Ontario Association of Optometrists. Damage to the eyes can occur without any sensation of pain.

Grey Bruce Public Health advises the following:

  • Do not look directly at the sun without proper eye protection during the solar eclipse. Looking at even a small sliver of the sun before or after the eclipse without proper eye protection can harm vision.
  • Keep a close eye on children and other vulnerable family members during the eclipse to ensure they do not inadvertently look up at the sun without proper eye protection.
  • To safely view the eclipse, ISO-certified eclipse glasses that meet the ISO 12312-2 international safety standard must be worn. Ensure these glasses are in good condition, without any wrinkles or scratches, and that they fully cover the entire field of vision. Put on the glasses when looking away from the sun, then look at the eclipse. Look away from the sun before taking the glasses off.
  • Regular sunglasses or homemade filters will not protect the eyes.
  • It is not safe to view the eclipse through a camera/phone lens, telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device.

Other ways to safely experience the solar eclipse include watching a livestream of the event or creating and using an eclipse box or pinhole projector.

Anyone experiencing temporary vision loss or blurred vision during or after the eclipse should speak with their eye care professional or healthcare provider as soon as possible.

Anyone experiencing blindness (immediate or delayed) after viewing the eclipse must seek emergency care immediately.

More information on the upcoming eclipse is available on the GBPH website.


At South Grey News, we endeavour to bring you truthful and factual, up-to-date local community news in a quick and easy-to-digest format that’s free of political bias. We believe this service is more important today than ever before, as social media has given rise to misinformation, largely unchecked by big corporations who put profits ahead of their responsibilities.

South Grey News does not have the resources of a big corporation. We are a small, locally owned-and-operated organization. Research, analysis and physical attendance at public meetings and community events requires considerable effort. But contributions from readers and advertisers, however big or small, go a long way to helping us deliver positive, open and honest journalism for this community.

Please consider supporting South Grey News with a donation in lieu of a subscription fee and let us know that our efforts are appreciated. Thank you.

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NASA to launch sounding rockets into moon's shadow during solar eclipse – Phys.org

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This photo shows the three APEP sounding rockets and the support team after successful assembly. The team lead, Aroh Barjatya, is at the top center, standing next to the guardrails on the second floor. Credit: NASA/Berit Bland

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.

The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the created when the moon eclipses the sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 .

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They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be relaunched in April 2024. The mission is led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab.

The sounding rockets will launch at three different times: 45 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peak local eclipse. These intervals are important to collect data on how the sun’s sudden disappearance affects the ionosphere, creating disturbances that have the potential to interfere with our communications.

The ionosphere is a region of Earth’s atmosphere that is between 55 to 310 miles (90 to 500 kilometers) above the ground. “It’s an electrified region that reflects and refracts and also impacts as the signals pass through,” said Barjatya. “Understanding the ionosphere and developing models to help us predict disturbances is crucial to making sure our increasingly communication-dependent world operates smoothly.”

A sounding rocket is able to carry science instruments between 30 and 300 miles above Earth’s surface. These altitudes are typically too high for science balloons and too low for satellites to access safely, making sounding rockets the only platforms that can carry out direct measurements in these regions. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The ionosphere forms the boundary between Earth’s lower atmosphere—where we live and breathe—and the vacuum of space. It is made up of a sea of particles that become ionized, or electrically charged, from the sun’s energy or .

When night falls, the ionosphere thins out as previously ionized particles relax and recombine back into neutral particles. However, Earth’s terrestrial weather and space weather can impact these particles, making it a dynamic region and difficult to know what the ionosphere will be like at a given time.

It’s often difficult to study short-term changes in the ionosphere during an eclipse with satellites because they may not be at the right place or time to cross the eclipse path. Since the exact date and times of the are known, NASA can launch targeted sounding rockets to study the effects of the eclipse at the right time and at all altitudes of the ionosphere.

As the eclipse shadow races through the atmosphere, it creates a rapid, localized sunset that triggers large-scale atmospheric waves and small-scale disturbances or perturbations. These perturbations affect different radio communication frequencies. Gathering the data on these perturbations will help scientists validate and improve current models that help predict potential disturbances to our communications, especially high-frequency communication.

This conceptual animation is an example of what observers might expect to see during a total solar eclipse, like the one happening over the United States on April 8, 2024. Credit: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio

The APEP rockets are expected to reach a maximum altitude of 260 miles (420 kilometers). Each rocket will measure charged and neutral particle density and surrounding electric and magnetic fields. “Each rocket will eject four secondary instruments the size of a two-liter soda bottle that also measure the same data points, so it’s similar to results from fifteen rockets while only launching three,” explained Barjatya. Embry-Riddle built three secondary instruments on each rocket, and the fourth one was built at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

In addition to the rockets, several teams across the U.S. will also be taking measurements of the ionosphere by various means. A team of students from Embry-Riddle will deploy a series of high-altitude balloons. Co-investigators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Haystack Observatory in Massachusetts and the Air Force Research Laboratory in New Mexico will operate a variety of ground-based radars taking measurements.

Using this data, a team of scientists from Embry-Riddle and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are refining existing models. Together, these various investigations will help provide the puzzle pieces needed to see the bigger picture of ionospheric dynamics.

The animation depicts the waves created by ionized particles during the 2017 total solar eclipse. Credit: MIT Haystack Observatory/Shun-rong Zhang. Zhang, S.-R., Erickson, P. J., Goncharenko, L. P., Coster, A. J., Rideout, W. & Vierinen, J. (2017). Ionospheric Bow Waves and Perturbations Induced by the 21 August 2017 Solar Eclipse. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(24), 12,067-12,073. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL076054

When the APEP- launched during the 2023 annular solar eclipse, scientists saw a sharp reduction in the density of charged particles as the annular eclipse shadow passed over the atmosphere.

“We saw the perturbations capable of affecting radio communications in the second and third rockets, but not during the first rocket that was before peak local eclipse,” said Barjatya. “We are super excited to relaunch them during the total eclipse to see if the perturbations start at the same altitude and if their magnitude and scale remain the same.”

The next total solar eclipse over the contiguous U.S. is not until 2044, so these experiments are a rare opportunity for scientists to collect crucial data.

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Royal Sask. Museum research finds insect changes may have set stage for dinosaurs' extinction – CTV News Regina

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Research by the Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM) shows that ecological changes were occurring in insects at least a million years before dinosaur extinction.

Papers published in the scientific journal, Current Biology, describe the first insect fossils found in amber from Saskatchewan and the unearthing of three new ant species from an amber deposit in North Carolina, according to a release from the province.

The amber deposit from in the Big Muddy Badlands of Saskatchewan, which was formed about 67 million years ago, preserved insects that lived in a swampy redwood forest about one million years before the extinction of dinosaurs.

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“Fossils in the amber deposit seem to show that common Cretaceous insects may have been replaced on the landscape by their more modern relatives, particularly in groups such as ants, before the extinction event,” Elyssa Loewen, curatorial assistant, said.

The research team was led by Loewen and Dr. Ryan McKellar, the RSM’s curator of paleontology.

“These new fossil records are closer than anyone has gotten to sampling a diverse set of insects near the extinction event, and they help researchers fill in a 17-million-year gap in the fossil record of insects around that time,” Dr. McKellar said.

The three ant species discovered in North Carolina also belonged to extinct groups that didn’t survive past the Cretaceous period.

“When combined with the work in Saskatchewan, the two recent papers show that there was a dramatic change in ant diversity sometime between 77 and 67 million years ago,” Dr. McKellar said in the release.

“Our analyses of body shapes in the fossils suggests that the turnover was not related to major differences in ecology, but it may have been related to something like the size and complexity of ant colonies. More work is needed to confirm this.”

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