Astronomers have been surprised by the closest source of mysterious flashes in the sky called fast radio bursts. Precision measurements with radio telescopes reveal that the bursts are made among old stars, and in a way that no one was expecting.
The source of the flashes, in nearby spiral galaxy M 81, is the closest of its kind to Earth. The research including the participation of JIVE researchers has been published on February 23, 2022 in two papers. In Nature A repeating fast radio burst source in a globular cluster (by Franz Kirsten et al) and Nature Astronomy Burst timescales and luminosities link young pulsars and fast radio bursts (by Kenzie Nimmo et al).
Read the JIVE press release here.
Image: © Daniëlle Futselaar/ASTRON, artsource.nl.