China’s colossal Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) has just dropped a cosmic bombshell: some mysterious fast radio bursts (FRBs) – those millisecond-long energy explosions brighter than a week’s worth of sunlight – might come from binary star systems! 🔭💥
An international team led by China’s Purple Mountain Observatory analyzed data from FAST, the world’s largest single-dish radio telescope in Guizhou Province. Their Science-published study of repeating FRB 20220529 (yes, it’s 2.9 billion light-years away! 🚀) revealed wild magnetic environment swings that only make sense if the source has a companion star. Think of it as cosmic detective work using Faraday rotation measures – basically space magnetic fingerprints. 🕵️♂️⚡
"This is like catching a magnetized plasma cloud red-handed during its two-week joyride across our line of sight," said researcher Wu Xuefeng. The discovery, made possible by FAST’s unmatched sensitivity, finally gives teeth to theories about FRBs originating from neutron star duos rather than solo acts. 🌠👯
West Virginia University’s Prof. Duncan Lorimer called it a "remarkable result," praising FAST’s game-changing monitoring power. And there’s more coming – engineers are now upgrading FAST with a surround-sound system of medium antennas to create a "super cosmic probe" array. Meanwhile, new telescopes in Qinghai and Antarctica will join the FRB-hunting squad. 🔭🌍
