One of the two most terrifying “monsters” in the universe may be responsible for emitting the most unusual radio signals ever recorded, detected by China’s FAST Telescope since 2022.
A research team from Western Sydney University (Australia), West Virginia University (USA), and the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has attempted to decode FRB 20190520B, a source of fast radio bursts (FRBs) that is exceptionally peculiar and continuously repeating.
The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in China discovered this mysterious extraterrestrial signal in 2022.
China’s giant FAST telescope – (Photo: AP).
Repeating fast radio bursts are already rare, and FRB 20190520B is even more unusual because, since its discovery, FAST and other observatories have consistently received new signals from this source multiple times per hour, without interruption, sometimes at various radio frequencies.
According to an article by the international research team in The Conversation, they had to mobilize additional powerful radio telescopes such as the Parkes Telescope operated by CSIRO (the largest government scientific research agency in Australia) located in New South Wales and the Green Bank Telescope in the USA, situated at the observatory of the same name in West Virginia.
They found that the signal was polarized and varied at different frequencies, indicating it was embedded in a highly ionized environment.
The intensity of the signal also changed over the 16 months of observation, even reversing direction completely twice, a phenomenon never seen before in repeating fast radio bursts.
Analyses indicate it originates from a dense dwarf galaxy, located 3.9 billion light-years away from us.
There are two most likely candidates responsible for the signal: a supermassive black hole or a neutron star engaged in a cosmic dance with another companion star. Neutron stars are incredibly powerful “zombie” stars, remnants of massive stars that have died.
All these findings are just the beginning, as the “monster” FRB 20190520B continues to emit strong, continuous signals to Earth-based observatories. Its unique characteristics and continuous repetition drive scientists to keep researching for more specific answers.
The question of what generates fast radio bursts has been a significant inquiry for nearly two decades since the first FRB was discovered. White dwarf stars, neutron stars, black holes, or extraterrestrial civilizations with superior technology… are leading hypotheses, yet none has been conclusively proven with solid evidence.
