X-ray burst detected in Milky Way

SCIENTISTS here have detected an X-ray burst associated with a fast radio burst (FRB) and confirmed its origin from a magnetar in the Milky Way, according to the Institute of High Energy Physics (Ihep), Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The discovery was made on Saturday using the Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (Gecam) telescope.

Xiong Shaolin, principal investigator of Gecam and a researcher with Ihep, noted that this is the second time in history that humans have managed to detect a high- energy counterpart of an FRB.

“This discovery provides extremely valuable data for a dee- per understanding of the radiation mechanism of FRBs and the outburst mechanism of magnetars,” Xiong said.

“It turns out that they both originated from the same magnetar named SGR J1935+2154, which further demonstrates that magnetar can emit the elusive FRB,” Xiong said.

FRBs are the brightest radio bursts known in the universe. They are called “fast” because these blips are very short, only several milliseconds in duration. But there is no reasonable explanation for their origin and radiation mechanism.

Magnetars are neutron stars with ultra-strong magnetic fields and can produce violent X-ray bursts during their activity. — Xinhua