Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have tracked down two brief, powerful radio bursts to the spiral arms of the two galaxies shown at top and bottom of this image. The catalogue names of the bursts are FRB 190714, top row, and FRB 180924, bottom row.
The galaxies are far from Earth, appearing as they looked billions of years ago. The dotted oval lines in each of the four images mark the location of the brilliant radio flares. The two images at left show the full Hubble snapshots of each galaxy.
To study each galaxy’s spiral structure in more detail, the researchers overlaid a computer model of the galaxies' starlight onto the images at left. They then subtracted the smoother, more diffuse starlight from each of those images. The resulting two images at right reveal each galaxy's spiral arms more clearly, which were harder to see in the original images.
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.
These galaxies are part of a survey to determine the origin of fast radio bursts, 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 190714, FRB 180924 |
| 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, 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. |
