UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

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To locate fast radio bursts, astronomers across the world have to search the skies for different electromagnetic signals.

CSIRO/Sam Moorfield

For the past decade, astronomers have been inching ever closer to answering a most puzzling question: What is the origin of the mysterious, high-energy radio signals that ping Earth and then, more often than not, vanish without a trace. All sorts of theories have been proposed to explain these fast radio bursts, or FRBs: aliens, because of course; exotic physics; extremely magnetized stars... there's a laundry list of potential explanations. (It's probably not aliens)

In November 2020, a suite of papers in the journal Nature announced the discovery of the first FRB emanating from our home galaxy. That detection implicated magnetars, an unusual type of dead star, as the cause of the millisecond bursts. However, the connection has yet to be definitively proven, and so astronomers keep on searching.

In a new paper, set to be published in the Astrophysical Journal and available as a preprint on arXiv, observations with NASA's workhorse Hubble Space Telescope have helped researchers to pinpoint the location of five FRBs to the spiral arms of distant galaxies. The team looked at eight FRBs, most of which were first detected in 2019 and 2020, but the locations of three of them remain enigmatic.

"This is the first high-resolution view of a population of FRBs," said Alexandra Mannings, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the paper's lead author.

NASA's Hubble was a critical component in the search. FRBs ping Earth-based detectors like the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, which allows them to be tracked to a region of the sky. Further imaging of the region might uncover a galaxy there, but they're only tiny points of light. When Hubble steps in, the resolution is increased enough to study the features of the galaxies.

"In this case, Hubble either confirmed the presence of spiral arms in these galaxies or uncovered spiral structure we had not been able to see before," said Wen-fai Fong, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University and co-author of the study.

The study helps to refine our understanding of these unusual, energetic outbursts and rule out some possible sources. The galaxies that many of the FRBs have been localized to are "massive, relatively young and still forming stars," according to Mannings, providing valuable context for FRB researchers. But the spiral arms of a galaxy don't typically house huge numbers of the youngest, brightest stars.

Fast radio bursts have been tracked to the spiral arms of distant galaxies.

NASA, ESA, Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Alexandra Mannings, Wen-fai Fong

Finding the FRBs there helps rule out two causes. They're likely not coming from explosive star deaths, which take place in the brightest regions of galaxies. Nor are they caused by neutron star mergers, which can take billions of years to occur and aren't commonly found in spiral arms.

The localizations don't rule out one of the leading theories of FRB production: magnetars. These stars throw off super powerful magnetic fields, and it's believed this can cause a radio flare to be thrown out into the universe. If you're listening, like many of Earth's ground-based telescopes are, those flares can be picked up. (See, it's probably not aliens...)

There's still a possibility that some of the FRBs detected on Earth are caused by something other than magnetars, but the evidence seems to be stacking up in their favor with each new study.

Not many FRBs have been traced back to their home galaxies. Some bursts have been known to repeat, which has helped Astro-Sherlocks get a lock on their location, while others just flare to life, leaving only a ghost of a signal and requiring a little extra detective work. It's unclear, at present, if all FRBs repeat or just some. "There are a lot of intricacies to explore once we have higher numbers," said Mannings.

"It's a really new, exciting field with limited observations," said Fong. "We're paving the way to learning more about this cosmic mystery."

As the number of FRBs discovered continues to rise, astronomers are beginning to understand them a little more. They're even helping us look at the universe in exciting new ways. In May 2020, astronomers in Australia used them to solve the universe's missing matter problem.

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In a new Mars update (the first update can be read here), mysterious rocks have been found and there may have been a fairly recent volcanic eruption.

NASA’s Perseverance Rover discovered some unusual rocks in the Jezero Crater and has been studying them with two of its instruments – the rock-zapping SuperCam laser and the WATSON (“Wide Angle Topographic Sensor for Operations and Engineering”) camera.

It’s unclear whether these rocks are sedimentary or volcanic. If they are volcanic in origin, this would be a huge help for experts understanding the history of the crater that billions of years ago had a lake and a river delta. If the rocks turn out to be sedimentary, they may have been created over a long period of time from sand, silt, and clay which may hold clues to ancient Martian life (if there ever was any).

Surface of Mars

In order to know for sure, the rover may need to collect samples from inside of the rocks. “When you look inside a rock, that’s where you see the story,” Ken Farley, who is the Perseverance’s project scientist at Caltech, said in a statement.

Pictures of the rocks can be seen here and here.

NASA's Perseverance Mars rover used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this image of "Santa Cruz," a hill within Jezero Crater, on April 29, 2021.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

NASA's Perseverance rover viewed these rocks with its Mastcam-Z imager on April 27, 2021.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS)

Mastcam-Z imager captures this image of “Santa Cruz,” a hill within Jezero Crater,

NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this image of “Santa Cruz,” a hill within Jezero Crater, on April 29, 2021, the 68th Martian day, or sol, of the mission.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

NASA’s Perseverance rover viewed these rocks with its Mastcam-Z imager

NASA’s Perseverance rover viewed these rocks with its Mastcam-Z imager on April 27, 2021.
Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU/MSSS

In other Mars news, scientists have found evidence of what might be the most recent volcanic eruption, suggesting that the planet may still be volcanically active and life may have been present there not too long ago. While it’s not news that experts have floated around the possibility that the Red Planet may still be volcanically active, this new research sheds a whole new light on the theory.

While the majority of volcanic eruptions happened on Mars between 3 and 4 billion years ago, some experts have suggested that they could have occurred as recently as 2.5 million years ago. But that’s nothing compared to this most recent study as scientists have found evidence of an eruption that occurred just within the last 50,000 years.

By analyzing data collected from satellites that are orbiting the Red Planet, researchers focused on an 8-mile-wide smooth dark volcanic deposit located in a region called Elysium Planitia. While other volcanic eruptions on the planet resulted with lava flowing along the surface, this newly discovered one seemed to have a fairly recent amount of rock and ash sitting on top of a lava flow. (A picture can be seen here.)

A satellite image of a recent explosive volcanic deposit around a fissure of the Cerberus Fossae system on Mars.

A satellite image of a recent explosive volcanic deposit around a fissure of the Cerberus Fossae system on Mars.

(Image credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/The Murray Lab)

Mars may still be volcanically active.

In a statement, David Horvath, who is a planetary scientist at the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Arizona, and the lead author of the study, said in a statement, “This eruption could have spewed ash as high as 10 kilometers (6 miles) into the Martian atmosphere.” And according to prior research, there may still be magma moving deep underground the Cerberus Fossae area of Mars.

Jeff Andrews-Hanna, who is a planetary scientist at the University of Arizona at Tucson and another author of the study, weighed in by stating, “If lava was erupting to the surface only 50,000 years ago, and the area is still rumbling with seismicity today, that means that it could erupt again.”

And since this newly discovered eruption occurred near the most recent large impact crater, experts have suggested a possible connection between the two – perhaps the impact triggered the volcanic eruption (it’s just speculation at this point but it is an interesting hypothesis). Furthermore, the heat from the recent eruption may have helped potential microbial life to thrive on Mars although that hasn’t been proven either as no proof of life has been found yet.