Hunting for the neighborhoods of enigmatic, fast radio bursts (FRBs), astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope tracked four of them to the spiral arms of the four distant galaxies shown in the image. The bursts are catalogued as FRB 190714, at top left; FRB 191001, at top right; FRB 180924, at bottom left; and FRB 190608, at bottom right.
Because these radio pulses disappear in much less than the blink of an eye, researchers have had a hard time tracking down where they come from.
The galaxies are far from Earth, appearing as they looked billions of years ago. With the help of Hubble's sharp vision, astronomers pinpointed the fast radio bursts' location (denoted by the dotted oval lines) to the galaxies' spiral arms.
These galaxies are part of a survey to determine the origin of these brilliant flares, which can release as much energy in a thousandth of a second as the Sun does in a year.
Identifying the radio bursts' location helped researchers narrow the list of possible FRB sources that can generate such prodigious tsunamis of energy. One of the leading possible explanations is a torrential blast from a young magnetar. Magnetars are a type of neutron star with extraordinarily powerful magnetic fields.
The observations were made in ultraviolet and near-infrared light with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. The images were taken between November 2019 and April 2020.
Credits
Science
NASA, ESA, Alexandra Mannings (UC Santa Cruz), Wen-fai Fong (Northwestern)
Image Processing
Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | FRB 191001, FRB 190714, FRB 180924, FRB 190608 |
| Object Description | Fast Radio Burst Host Galaxies |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal (J. Prochaska) and (A. Mannings). |
| Instrument | WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | 27 Nov 2019, 01 Dec 2019, 28 April 2020, 30 April 2020 |
| Filters | F160W |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
