300-Million-Year Old Wheel Discovered in a Coal Mine of Donetsk, Ukraine

300-Million-Year Old Wheel Discovered in a Coal Mine of Donetsk, Ukraine
Really fast UFO filmed over Stoneville, NC 8-Jun-2020

Our reader from Stoneville, North Carolina filmed this UFO from his backyard. This really fast unidentified flying object was making some kind of maneuvers. What do you think of it?
Date: 8th June 2020.
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Link: youtube.com/c/LUFOS-UFO
AMAZING: UFOs flying in formation over Brentwood, Missouri | 2020

Check out this amazing UFO capture. It looks like four UFOs were flying in formation but maybe it is just a one triangle-shaped craft. This happened over Brenton, Missouri on 8th March 2020 but it was released to MUFON’s website just a few hours ago.
Witness report:
4 points of light in formation with some rotation of lights. I had recently purchased a Night Vision Device. Went outside to gaze the night sky, within seconds noticed the objects in a pattern. Then i drop the NVD to to observe with my eyes, but could not see them. Then went back to NVD, then remembered that i could record it, and i did for 9 seconds.. Objects apeard to shift/rotate slightly as they moved out of sight.
The Milky Way’s giant gas bubbles were seen in visible light for the first time

Giant bubbles of expanding gas that surround the Milky Way have been seen in visible light for the first time. The gas’s motion shifts the light’s wavelength, as depicted in this illustration. Emission from gas moving toward the solar system (bright spot at middle right) appears slightly bluer, while gas moving away appears redder.
HST/NASA, AND A. FIELD/STSCI
For the first time, scientists have observed visible light from the Fermi bubbles, enormous blobs of gas that sandwich the plane of the Milky Way galaxy. The newly spotted glow was emitted by hydrogen gas that was electrically charged, or ionized, within the bubbles. Astronomer Dhanesh Krishnarao of the University of Wisconsin–Madison and colleagues described the finding June 3 in a news conference at the American Astronomical Society virtual meeting and in a paper posted at arXiv.org on May 29.

Fermi Bubbles: Astronomers used the WHAM telescope to measure huge outflows of gas extending from the Milky Way's center known as the Fermi Bubbles. They were able to measure the velocity, density and pressure of the gas for the first time, confirming and extending previous measurements made by using a distant quasar as a light source to look through and measure the gas.
Credit: Dhanesh Krishnarao and NASA
Originally observed in 2010, the bubbles spew high-energy light known as gamma rays. The towering structures, each 25,000 light-years tall, are thought to be relics of an ancient outburst of gas from the galaxy’s center (SN: 11/9/10). But scientists don’t know the source. The outflow could have been the result of the black hole at the center of the galaxy messily gobbling up matter, or emissions caused by bursts of stars forming.
Using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper telescope, astronomers have for the first time measured the Fermi Bubbles in the visible light spectrum. The Fermi Bubbles are two enormous outflows of high-energy gas that emanate from the Milky Way and the finding refines our understanding of the properties of these mysterious blobs.
Within the bubbles, gas is expanding outward, its motion altering the apparent wavelength of its light. Material closer to the solar system is traveling toward it, appearing bluer, and more distant gas is moving away, appearing redder. The wavelength shift allowed the researchers to pinpoint the gas’s velocity at one location within the bubbles. Using the Wisconsin H-Alpha Mapper telescope, or WHAM, the researchers determined that the gas flowed outward at about 220 kilometers per second. The estimate agreed with an earlier measurement made using ultraviolet light.
By taking measurements in other locations, the researchers hope to more fully map out the velocity of the gas. “What that can tell us is how, over time, the energy output from the Fermi bubbles has changed. That’ll really be able to nail down more about the origin,” Krishnarao said.
The research team from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UW-Whitewater and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University measured the emission of light from hydrogen and nitrogen in the Fermi Bubbles at the same position as recent ultraviolet absorption measurements made by the Hubble Telescope.
"We combined those two measurements of emission and absorption to estimate the density, pressure and temperature of the ionized gas, and that lets us better understand where this gas is coming from," says Dhanesh Krishnarao, lead author of the new study and an astronomy graduate student at UW-Madison.
The researchers announced their findings June 3 at the 236th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which was held virtually for the first time since 1899, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Extending 25,000 light years both above and below the center of the Milky Way, the Fermi Bubbles were discovered in 2010 by the Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope. These faint but highly energetic outflows of gas are racing away from the center of the Milky Way at millions of miles per hour. But while the origin of the phenomenon has been inferred to date back several million years ago, the events that produced the bubbles remain a mystery.
Now, with new measurements of the density and pressure of the ionized gas, researchers can test models of the Fermi Bubbles against observations.
"The other significant thing is that we now have the possibility of measuring the density and pressure and the velocity structure in many locations," with the all-sky WHAM telescope, says Bob Benjamin, a professor of astronomy at UW-Whitewater and co-author of the study. "We can do an extensive mapping effort across the Fermi Bubbles above and below the plane of the galaxy to see if the models that people have developed are holding up. Because, unlike the ultraviolet data, we're not limited to just specific lines of sight."
Matt Haffner, professor of physics and astronomy at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a co-author of the report, says the work demonstrates the usefulness of the WHAM telescope, developed at UW-Madison, to tell us more about the workings of the Milky Way. The central region of our home galaxy has long been difficult to study because of gas blocking out view, but WHAM has provided new opportunities to gather the kind of information we have for distant galaxies.
"There are regions of the galaxy we can target with very sensitive instruments like WHAM to get this kind of new information toward the center that previously we are only able to do in the infrared and radio," says Haffner. "We can make comparisons to other galaxies by making the same kind of measurements towards the center of the Milky Way."
{ https://www.sciencenews.org/ --
https://phys.org/ }
NASA spacecraft swoops down low over asteroid Bennu to eye sampling siteNASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft has taken its closest look yet at a potential sample site on asteroid Bennu.
The probe has been orbiting the asteroid since 2018 and has been preparing to collect a chunk of asteroid rock, which it will bring back to Earth in 2023. OSIRIS-REx is set to take the sample from the site named Nightingale on Oct. 20, 2020, but on May 26 the spacecraft took a dive toward Osprey, the backup sample collection site for the mission. OSIRIS-REx dropped down to just 820 feet (250 meters) above the site, which is the closest the spacecraft has been to Osprey.
During the operation, the probe took 347 images from PolyCam, one of three cameras on the craft, which were stitched together into a mosaic to show the full site. In the mosaic picture, you can see Osprey located in the crater at the bottom of the image, right above the dark spot in the middle of the crater.
The purpose of this swooping maneuver was to provide high-resolution images that the OSIRIS-REx team could use to identify the best areas within Osprey for the spacecraft to take a sample should the procedure at Nightingale not work. Wherever the mission's sample comes from on Bennu the spacecraft will use its robotic arm known as TAGSAM (which stands for the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism). TAGSAM is made up of an 11-foot (3.4-meter) arm with three joints, a sampler head and pressurized nitrogen gas.
To sample Bennu, the spacecraft will descend toward the surface, unfold its arm, and briefly touch the sampler head to the asteroid's surface. The mechanism will release the nitrogen gas, which will rustle material on the asteroid's surface into the sampler head. Lastly, the spacecraft will photograph the sampler head to make sure that it collected enough material. (Scientists are aiming for at least 2.1 ounces, or 60 grams.)
By studying an asteroid like Bennu up close and bringing a piece home, scientists can better understand the early solar system, as such asteroids are remnants from this early cosmic time. In fact, some of the mineral fragments inside of the asteroid could be older than the solar system itself, according to NASA. This particular asteroid is not only especially old, but it's uniquely well-preserved so it could be an incredible resource for studying the formation of our solar system or even the origin of life.
Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd.
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Brilliant fireball lights up skies over Tennessee (video)A meteor lit up the night sky over Tennessee and neighboring states late Sunday (June 7), sparking 120 fireball sightings across 12 different states and Canada.
The fireball occurred at 9:42 p.m. EDT (0142 GMT) and blazed a trail over southern Ohio, according to a ground track by the American Meteor Society. It was visible for up to 3.5 seconds from as far south as South Carolina and as far north as Ontario, Canada, AMS reported.
One witness video shows the fireball from Knoxville, Tennessee, as the meteor flares up in a dazzling streak and disappear seconds later.
"Fireball caught over Knoxville, TN last night," AMS representatives wrote on Twitter alongside the video. "This fireball has been [seen] from IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, NC, OH, PA, SC, TN, VA, WV & Ontario!"
The video, which lasts about 2 seconds, was captured by witness Austin R. from a moving vehicle.
We're currently in between major meteor showers at the moment, with the Eta Aquarids of May behind us and August's Perseid meteor display still ahead. But there is still some general meteor activity to look out for. The AMS has a guide of current meteor forecasts from June 6 to June 12 here.
Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Instagram.
Half the matter in the universe was missing. Scientists just found it hiding in the cosmos.
Military On Alert Due To Another UFO Crash... This Time, Witnesses Got There First!

It seems that extraterrestrial beings from other worlds took great interest in military tests. This interest may have led to the crash and recovery of two strange crafts, in the area. Investigators found beings of non-human characteristics. In addition, materials were found that left the witnesses stunned. Jaime Maussán travels to the places of these crashes to interview the renowned author and researcher Don Schmitt, who interviewed more than 150 direct and 600 indirect witnesses.
Presented by Jaime Maussan
All Content on this channel is fully licensed, and or produced in-house at our studios in UK, Europe and USA.
How To Uncover What is Going On

There have been a number of UFO sightings over the years, and more people are being drawn to this topic. It has become a very hot topic, which seems to be exploding all over the world, where ever there is space. The weather patterns have been shown to have changed, and there is an increased UFO sighting from time to time.
There are many people who are just enjoying the mystery and unexplained incidents that come with this subject. Whether or not it is a normal phenomenon, we do not know. It could be something else.
We are talking about galaxies, stars, and distant remote planets, as well as our own planet. The stars are great for those who want to look at the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The light, like the light we see in the night sky, comes from these stars. We cannot find out how far away these stars are from us, because there is only one way to find out.
If a scientist found a way to determine the speed at which these stars move, he would have taken the power out of our lights, and none of us would see them at all. We would have no lights, except for the distant ones we see from time to time.
The skies are constantly being raked by UFOs, which has been going on for years. There are dozens of sightings of flying objects happening everyday, even throughout the day, and the governments cannot come up with any answers. There are some of them that we have reports of but cannot figure out what they are.
Maybe we should start with the military. If they can’t find out what they are doing, then how are we supposed to find out? They can not answer our questions, and it has been proven that aliens exist and they are watching us. Is that just some crazy conspiracy theory, or is there evidence of it?
The satellites in space to keep calling the earth, and if they can track their position in space, they can tell us if they are in the sky at all times. This gives us a clear view of these UFOs that are flying in our skies.
We see the strange things over the country and most of the time they don’t know why. Do we, the people, have a piece of the puzzle? I would think that we do, and we have seen a lot of strange things, and it has been confirmed that other nations have the ability to shoot down objects that are UFO’s.
Source:
Special New Crop Circle Signals The EndTo me, this formation represents the ending of a cycle because of the numerology involved. With this ending comes a decision point on what path to choose next. What do you think?
YouTube: ModernGalaxy
Videos, by peter2011
A Former FBI Agent Reveals the Real X-Files

Beyond Belief TV Series Special… A former FBI special agent, John Desouza, may have been the real X-Files guy. He comes forward to reveal results from his investigations into paranormal phenomena, including UFO sightings and encounters with strange beings.
Even though he pushed to get to the heart of these happenings, he was met with an ever-strengthening shroud of secrecy, obscuring his work and discrediting witnesses. He explains key tactics used as part of this cover-up opera-tion, which are used in mainstream and social media whenever news of unusual events leak to the public. John DeSouza was an FBI Special Agent who maintained a Top Secret security clearance for over 25 years as he investigated paranormal experiences. During that time, he collected what he calls, the real-life X-FILES.
A media phenomenon, Coast to Coast AM deals with UFOs, strange occurrences, life after death, and other unexplained (and often inexplicable) phenomena.
Latest UFO Footages – Are They Real?

Latest UFO Footages – Are They Real?
It is easy to think that the latest UFO footage is going to be dull and boring. However, some people are starting to get more adventurous and take videos of UFO sightings that have actually shown a lot of detail.
The latest UFO videos that have surfaced include objects that have been turned into spherical and flying discs that were in motion when captured on video. These strange UFOs can also leave you scratching your head wondering just what the heck you are looking at.
If you are not afraid to ask for the latest UFO sighting or video of a UFO that you see it is vital that you do so. With today’s technology you may find that a photo or a video proves to be just as real as an eye-witness sighting. For instance, if a few thousand people saw a UFO at the same time then it would be hard to prove it was an accident without one of the witnesses to write down the UFO sighting at the exact moment of what they saw.
However, it is fun to take pictures of interesting things. You can take pictures of a UFO with a digital camera to add to your collection. There are tons of photos of UFO sightings around the world so don’t be shy to grab the camera and shoot!
Nowadays, with the new technologies we have we can get everything we want in photos from space. When the NASA photos were taken by their Hubble telescope they were blown up to great size and blown up like a poster on a wall. We can now zoom in on these things and make a wonderful slide show.
Nowadays, even the FAA has a webpage for videos of UFO sightings from the sky. This is also a great way to share your stories, pictures, and videos.
Since so many people are interested in UFO sightings, if you have a unique video of something strange and unexplained happen on the ground, you can submit your video to YouTube. This is a community based site that has a large community that can help you out.
You can also go to a UFO fan page and post your UFO sighting and get the word out to the masses. More people will see your video than if you just use YouTube alone.
Source:
VIDEOS, selected by peter2011
Glowing White Orb Over Pennsylvania On June 3, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Glowing White Orb Over Pennsylvania On June 3, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Giant Triangle UFO Seen Flying Low Over New Jersey Neighborhood, Video, May 31, 2020, UFO Sighting News.
Giant Triangle UFO Seen Flying Low Over New Jersey Neighborhood, Video, May 31, 2020, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Over Bangkok, Thailand Hiding In Cloud, Jun 4, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.
UFO Over Bangkok, Thailand Hiding In Cloud, Jun 4, 2020, Video, UFO Sighting News.
Two partially cloaked UFOs appear and disappear over Ontario, Canada
Latest UFO Sightings Reports – June 2020
Latest UFO sightings that were submitted through our report page and Facebook page.
Bothell Washington – 6/6/2020
From 1930 hrs. on 6/6/2020 from the West heading slowly between 1,800 feet at it’s highest to 1000 feet as it crossed my path directly overhead moving in a Southwest direction with a duration of 8 minutes with 5 witnesses on site.
Doughnut shaped metallic craft that rotated while moving on a steady heading, came from the setting sun directly overhead at 800 feet rotating with the sun visibly reflecting from the surfaces. a wider portion of open center where the sky behind was visible when the crafts orientation was “bottom side” towards my line of sight. the craft had no hard edges and was beautifully curved at its best visibility and made no noise whatsoever.
Australia UFO Visitation. At 1:15 pm on Friday 5 June
I saw three objects in the sky above my remote ranch in northern South Australia. They hovered in the sky near to me for a few seconds and then flew away at unbelievable speed. I managed to take a quick photo. I’m telling you, we are not alone.

California 4 June 2020
Mount Shasta California yesterday

Springfield VA – 4 June 2020
I took this picture at 3:36 am over Springfield VA and it appears to have 2 UFO’s in the picture.

HongKong – 04/06/2020, 11:31pm
1st image shown the UFO’s light dimed a lot and the UFO out-look appeared with 2 parallel holes.
I used Nikon and Sigma 400mm, Photoshop cropped photos.
The last photo image is an airplane light as reference.
I saw it with my 5year old son. He saw it suddently fly away with super high speed
But I was checking my camera photo …
Unknown location – June 2020
I took this picture and noticed these white specs the lens on my cell phone Are clean. If you enlarge I found 11 white items yet the pics before this one and the one after do not have these.


Fayre Avenue, Fareham – 31st May 2020
I was in a family friends (Jeff) garden and he was getting his bbq ready for a bbq.
I had only been there for about an hour and I saw an object coming from the area of the Spinika Tower in Portsmouth/Ports down hill way, this object in the sky was twisting and turning. It was very high up with no tail trail or noise. It had lights flashing as it was rotating changing shapes/colours. It had no noise and stayed stationary above Jeff’s house. I kept telling him to look up and eventually he did. The speed of this thing was incredible. We watched it head towards the Sun. Then it stopped. Came back nearer and started moving between the electrical power cables in the distances and it was moving at a speed neither of us has ever seen before..even when we were watching it we were ticking off what we know it wasn’t.
It was the size of a double story house and we both have never seen anything like it. Did anyone else report this. Do you have any information about this please?
It reminded me of a rubex cube in the way it was rotating and the lights flashing like diamonds/ oil like..very fluid. Neither of us had a phone at hand and honestly I was too stunned to move.
Jeff saw this thing through his binoculars. It was black then silver..flashing lights and colours like how petrol reacts on water. It wasn’t just rotating it moved like nothing we’ve ever seen before. Did anyone else see this at about 5pm on 31st May in Fareham,Portsmouth UK???
Boston – 30MAY2020
After I stepped out of my house on the day the SpaceX dragon module was launched, I was just scouring the sky(no telescope)to see whether I could see ISS or something in the sky. But to my surprise what my wife and I witnessed was something else.
I saw three objects which were reflecting lights during the sunset time, those objects were almost flying together like triangle-shaped formation. we just made sure to continue looking at them, and in a few seconds, all of them flew away in different directions.
These were surely flying at cruising altitude but could be mistaken for flights. But their formation and dispersing like being tasked with something urgent as if they just had a meeting didn’t let me accept them as aircraft. The shapes of these objects were looking like small triangles from afar.
No pictures could be captured, but I wished I had my camera with me.
are there any such observation on this day by anyone else?, I would be curious to know.
Marshall, Missoiri – May, 29, 2020
I sat on the porch smoking then i heard a boom the street lights and everything went down for a few seconds. TheN look up and see a Small rotating red light softly move across the sky. The red light would diverge into two which would seem to rotate their lights in tandem as entangled. It moved across the sky and tracked it for about 70 seconds. Real live UFO sighting across Marshall Mo 11:58- midnight friday may 29!

Newton Abbot Devon England – 29th of May 2020
I was outside in the back garden watching the international space station pass over the area when a strange object caught my eye. I immediately zoomed in on it with my Nikon P900 camera to see what it could be, only to be surprised by what I saw. There was a silver metallic saucer that had large black tinted windows that where semicircle shaped. I counted six windows in total as the saucer rotated while it was slowly being enveloped by a cloud. I quickly took a photograph and looked on with amazement as the cloud was now totally obscuring the saucer from view. It was like the saucer had purposely formed the cloud around it self in order to remain completely undetected as it drifted high above the housing estate below. I tried to take another photograph but the camera strangely malfunction and locked up so I was unable to. I was really annoyed so I put the camera down on the garden table and just watched as the saucer hidden within the cloud slowly floated off into the distance where I unfortunately lost sight of it. The photograph was taken at 11:11 PM on the 29th of May 2020, Newton Abbot Devon England. All the best John.
NY – 27 May 2020
I spitted some in the Hudson ballet region of NY last night! Friend from Berkshire Massachusetts saw some too.

Tottenham, Ontario – May 26, 2020 around 2200Hrs
Star sized flashing Red and green objet with no specific pattern. Could be red for 1 min then flash green and red then be green for 1 min. Saw it at about 45 deg over the horizon due south. Then moved straight north to then veer south east to a full stop for a few minutes. Then started to go north to disappear and reappear going north and then started to do S. Stop North at about 45 deg over the horizon. I tried to take a picture with my phone but was way too small to be captured. I tried to zoom but was just a big blur.
Cornwall Ontario may 21st 2020
My backyard
Halifax, Canada – may 8th
Hello I witnessed a UFO in the early hours of may 8th. The object was a shaoeshifting orb of light. Shape shifting .It moved in irregular patterns it also seamed to be scanning with some intense light. To the naked eye there was rays of light coming out of it but on the video the object Is just morphing. Ok it’s pretty wild a shapeshifting orb of light. First I’ve ever seen where I can’t actually explain what it could be. These where takin out my bedroom window with my phone. Very bizarre I wish I had a better camera man the object was morphing like a ball of light. Almost like a plasma ball.. And it would disappear on my camera but I could always see it with my eyes. I’m going to try and contact Chris rutkowski. He is a prominent in Canada
Amazônia – On October 13, 2013;
at 10:45 pm; I see a black ovini without lights (triangular in the front and the wings were in the shape of a boomerang) it had the wingspan of a boing, it passed at low altitude very slowly and without any noise … it came from the south direction and went to the west direction from the Amazon … In 1998 I had yet another more intriguing contact, I was at the window near the yard smoking a cigarette and there was no light; when a fetish of light touched the backyard soil, which at the moment was like a very white room, an unusual white; out of that beam of light, another one comes out in the form of (zzzzzz) I continue to the window when that light spoke in my mind we are not going to do any harm; in seconds I was scared and that continuous zzzzzzz shape came back to the other shape and that light goes out at high speed and the backyard went back to the normal backyard shape. I know what you see and I know it wasn’t something human. ..
Other videos, peter2011
UFOs hovering above Pachuca de Soto, Mexico

These lights were caught on tape ²over Pachuca de Soto, the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo back in 2019 (12th July) but it was just today uploaded to MUFON website.
Witness report:
Objects in formation, with a specific pattern, the observer refers to “A great Ship formed by the lights or objects in the sky”. Strange lights that have flashing light.
Chicxulub collision put Earth’s crust in hot water for over a million years

About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into Earth at what is now Chicxulub, on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula (illustrated). In addition to triggering a mass extinction, the impact sent superheated water cycling deep into the crust.
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
A Milky Way flash implicates magnetars as a source of fast radio bursts

A bright radio burst generated by a magnetar (one illustrated) in our galaxy hints that similar objects are responsible for at least some of the fast radio bursts in other galaxies, which have puzzled astronomers for over a decade.
L. CALÇADA/ESO
By
Astronomers think they’ve spotted the first example of a superbright blast of radio waves, called a fast radio burst, originating within the Milky Way.
Dozens of these bursts have been sighted in other galaxies — all too far away to see the celestial engines that power them (SN: 2/7/20). But the outburst in our own galaxy, detected simultaneously by two radio arrays on April 28, was close enough to see that it was generated by a highly magnetic neutron star called a magnetar.
That observation is a smoking gun that magnetars are behind at least some of the extragalactic fast radio bursts, or FRBs, that have defied explanation for over a decade (SN: 7/25/14). Researchers describe the magnetar’s radio burst online at arXiv.org on May 20 and May 21.
“When I first heard about it, I thought, ‘No way. Too good to be true,’” says Ben Margalit, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, who wasn’t involved in the observations. “Just, wow. It’s really an incredible discovery.”
In addition to giving magnetars an edge over other proposed explanations for FRBs, such as those involving black holes and stellar collisions, observations of this Milky Way magnetar may clear up a debate among theorists about how magnetars crank out such powerful radio waves.
Researchers first noted an intense radio outburst from a young, active magnetar about 30,000 light-years away, dubbed SGR 1935+2154, in an astronomer’s telegram. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, or CHIME, radio telescope in British Columbia had detected about 30 decillion, or 3 × 1034 ergs of energy from the burst. That was far brighter than any flash of radio waves previously seen from any of the five magnetars in and around the Milky Way known to emit radio pulses.
That report inspired another group of astronomers to check concurrent data from the Survey for Transient Astronomical Radio Emission 2, or STARE2, detectors in the southwestern United States. STARE2, which watches the sky for radio signals at a different set of frequencies than CHIME, measured a whopping 2.2 × 1035 ergs from the burst.
“This thing put out, in a millisecond, as much energy as the sun puts out in 100 seconds,” says Caltech astronomer Vikram Ravi, who was on the team that analyzed the STARE2 data. That made this event 4,000 times as energetic as the brightest millisecond radio pulse ever seen in the Milky Way. If such an intense burst had happened in a nearby galaxy, it would have looked just like a fast radio burst.
“I was basically in shock,” says radio astronomer Christopher Bochenek of Caltech, who combed through the STARE2 data to find the burst. “It took me a while, and a call to a friend, to calm me down enough to go and make sure that this thing was actually real.”
The weakest FRB that has been observed in another galaxy was still about 40 times more energetic than SGR 1935+2154’s radio flare. But that’s “pretty close, on astronomical terms,” says Keith Bannister, a radio astronomer at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in Sydney, who was not involved in the work. Magnetars like this “could be responsible for some fraction, if not all of the FRBs that we’ve seen so far,” he says. “This motivates future studies to try and find similar sorts of objects in other, nearby galaxies.”
If magnetars do generate extragalactic FRBs, then SGR 1935+2154 could give new insight about how these objects do it. Theorists currently have many competing ideas about magnetar FRBs, Margalit says. Some think the FRB radio waves originate right in the thick of the star’s intense magnetic fields. Others suspect radio waves are emitted when matter ejected from the magnetar collides with material farther out in space.
Different magnetar FRB scenarios come with different predictions about the appearance of X-rays that should be emitted along with the radio waves. Extragalactic FRBs are so far away that “the X-rays are kind of hopeless to detect,” Margalit says. But SGR 1935+2154 is close enough that spaceborne detectors saw a gush of X-rays from the magnetar at the same time as the radio burst. A closer look at the brightness, timing and frequency of those X-rays could help theorists evaluate magnetar FRB models, Margalit says.