WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:07.719 Welcome to Bedtime Astronomy. Explore the wonders of the cosmos 2 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:12.279 with our soothing Bedtime Astronomy podcast. Each episode offers a 3 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:16.320 gentle journey through the stars, planets, and beyond, perfect for 4 00:00:16.399 --> 00:00:20.239 unwinding after a long day. Let's travel through the mysteries 5 00:00:20.239 --> 00:00:22.440 of the universe as you drift off into a peaceful 6 00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:23.839 slumber under the night sky. 7 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:30.519 Hello, and welcome back to the show we are. We're 8 00:00:30.519 --> 00:00:32.840 absolutely thrilled to have you with us today because we 9 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:36.159 are looking up, way, way up exactly. We're turning our 10 00:00:36.200 --> 00:00:40.840 gaze toward one of the most baffling, high energy mysteries 11 00:00:41.679 --> 00:00:45.039 in the well, in the entire known universe. We're talking 12 00:00:45.079 --> 00:00:49.000 about a phenomenon that has basically been taunting astronomers for 13 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:51.079 what nearly two decades now. 14 00:00:51.159 --> 00:00:52.960 It really has. I mean, it's one of those cosmic 15 00:00:53.000 --> 00:00:56.439 puzzles that just you know, refuses to fit into the box. 16 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:58.840 It has kept a lot of very smart people awake 17 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:01.119 at night, just staring at data screens. 18 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.320 We're talking, of course, about fast radio. 19 00:01:03.159 --> 00:01:04.840 Bursts or frb's for sure. 20 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:08.040 I've always loved that name, Fast radio bursts. Yeah, it 21 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:11.400 just sounds so urgent, it sounds like a warning, and 22 00:01:11.480 --> 00:01:13.719 the description it really matches the name, right. These are 23 00:01:13.959 --> 00:01:15.359 essentially cosmic flickers. 24 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.000 Flicker is a good word, but it almost understates the 25 00:01:18.079 --> 00:01:21.959 violence of it. These are millisecond long flashes of radio waves. 26 00:01:22.079 --> 00:01:24.599 They appear out of nowhere. They just scream across the 27 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:26.599 cosmos with this incredible brightness. 28 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:28.200 And when you say incredible, you mean. 29 00:01:28.400 --> 00:01:31.680 I mean releasing as much energy in a fraction of 30 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:34.480 a second as our sun does in days or weeks, 31 00:01:34.599 --> 00:01:36.640 or for some of them, even a century. 32 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:38.799 A century's worth of solar energy in a millisecond, and 33 00:01:38.840 --> 00:01:41.319 then lah, they're gone. 34 00:01:42.079 --> 00:01:42.560 Silence. 35 00:01:42.920 --> 00:01:44.400 That is the part that gets me every time we 36 00:01:44.439 --> 00:01:47.120 discuss this topic, the sheer scale of the energy versus 37 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:49.439 the brevity of the event. It's like a camera flash 38 00:01:49.480 --> 00:01:52.319 that blinds you from across the room m m, but 39 00:01:52.359 --> 00:01:55.239 the camera is actually located in another galaxy entirely. 40 00:01:55.319 --> 00:01:58.519 That is a fantastic way to visualize it. And because 41 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:01.200 they're so bright and so short, for the longest time, 42 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:05.079 the big question, the obsession really has been what is 43 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:07.760 the engine driving these things? What kind of cosmic beast 44 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:10.639 has the power to scream that loud that fast? 45 00:02:10.759 --> 00:02:13.759 Right, It's the classic celestial Who do unit are they? 46 00:02:14.319 --> 00:02:17.840 You know, lonely isolated stars just screaming into the void. 47 00:02:18.199 --> 00:02:21.360 Is it a cataclysmic explosion where something is being destroyed 48 00:02:21.520 --> 00:02:21.719 or is. 49 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:25.039 There something more complex, maybe even more structural, going on. 50 00:02:25.159 --> 00:02:28.639 It has been a massive open question in astrophysics for 51 00:02:28.680 --> 00:02:31.000 a long time. There were more theories than there were 52 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:32.120 observed bursts. 53 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:35.960 But that's changing, and that's why we're here today. We're 54 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:38.919 unpacking a major, major break in the. 55 00:02:38.879 --> 00:02:41.520 Case we are And this isn't just a theory or 56 00:02:41.560 --> 00:02:44.879 some computer simulation running in a basement somewhere. This is well, 57 00:02:45.159 --> 00:02:49.159 the paper calls it decisive evidence, Okay, published just recently 58 00:02:49.280 --> 00:02:52.759 on January sixteenth, twenty twenty six, in the journal Science. 59 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:55.240 And this comes from a huge international team. 60 00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:58.520 Right, a massive collaboration, yeah, including researchers from the University 61 00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:02.199 of Hong Kong or HKU. And the headline is just 62 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:06.919 it's astonishing at least some of these FRB sources, they're 63 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:08.599 not living the single life. 64 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:11.520 They are in relationships. I like that. Even stars need 65 00:03:11.560 --> 00:03:12.639 a plus one exactly. 66 00:03:12.680 --> 00:03:15.680 They are in binary stellar systems. They have companions, and 67 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:18.240 that well a lot changes everything about how we understand them. 68 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:21.840 So today we are starting a full investigation. We're going 69 00:03:21.879 --> 00:03:24.800 to unpack this discovery piece by piece. We're going to 70 00:03:24.840 --> 00:03:27.879 meet the detective in this story, a massive telescope called 71 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:28.840 the China Sky. 72 00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:31.120 I, and we'll look at the subject, a specific repeating 73 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:34.039 burse source known as FRB two two zero five and 74 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:34.520 two nine A. 75 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:36.439 And we're going to talk about a smoking gun event, 76 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:39.599 a little something called an RM flare. And just to 77 00:03:39.599 --> 00:03:41.479 give you a roadnap, this isn't just about finding a 78 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:47.919 second star. It's about how a really boring observation, literally 79 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:51.639 staring and nothing happening for months, suddenly turned into a 80 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:55.159 discovery that might just change our understanding of the architecture 81 00:03:55.199 --> 00:03:55.759 of the universe. 82 00:03:55.800 --> 00:03:58.599 It's a great story. It's about patients, the physics of 83 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:01.879 light and well stellar weather. 84 00:04:02.199 --> 00:04:05.120 I love stories where boredom pays off. It gives me 85 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:08.120 hope for my own life. So let's set the scene. 86 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.680 This wasn't a lucky snapshot, was it. This wasn't someone 87 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:12.840 just pointing a telescope at the sky at random and 88 00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:14.000 boom they get lucky. 89 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:17.399 This is a scakeout, oh precisely. This is a long term, 90 00:04:17.560 --> 00:04:20.879 calculated stakeout. And to understand why this is so special 91 00:04:20.879 --> 00:04:23.000 and why we haven't found this before. We have to 92 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:26.600 talk about the tool they used, the Fast telescope. 93 00:04:25.959 --> 00:04:30.399 Fast FAST that stands for the five hundred meter aperture spherical. 94 00:04:30.000 --> 00:04:33.759 Telescope located in Guzu, China. It's the world's largest filled 95 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:37.160 aperture radio telescope. When we say China Sky, we aren't kidding. 96 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:39.639 The scale of this thing is. It's just hard to wrap. 97 00:04:39.439 --> 00:04:42.680 Your head around five hundred meters across. If you filled 98 00:04:42.680 --> 00:04:44.879 that dish with water, you're not talking about a pool, 99 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:45.839 you're talking about a lake. 100 00:04:46.399 --> 00:04:49.439 You could fit entire neighborhoods inside the dish. And in 101 00:04:49.519 --> 00:04:51.319 radio astronomy, size is everything. 102 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:52.920 Size matters, it really does. 103 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:56.160 The larger the dish, the more radio waves you can catch. 104 00:04:56.399 --> 00:04:57.839 It's like having a bigger bucket in. 105 00:04:57.800 --> 00:04:59.959 The rain, right, a bigger bucket catches more. 106 00:05:01.000 --> 00:05:04.839 In this case, the drops are these incredibly faint radio 107 00:05:04.879 --> 00:05:08.639 signals from billions of light years away. The sensitivity of 108 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:12.360 Fast is what makes this kind of detailed monitoring even possible. 109 00:05:12.600 --> 00:05:15.360 It can hear whispers that other telescopes might miss entirely. 110 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:19.120 So they've got this massive ear listening to the sky 111 00:05:19.360 --> 00:05:21.480 and they didn't just listen to static. They pointed this 112 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:25.040 massive ear at a very very specific. 113 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:27.319 Target FRB two two zero five two nine. 114 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:29.920 A, which I have to say sounds like a license plate. 115 00:05:30.040 --> 00:05:32.639 It does. It's not the most poetic man. Astronomers are 116 00:05:32.680 --> 00:05:35.519 great at math, not always great at branding. Yeah, but 117 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:40.000 that license plate represents an active repeating source and it's 118 00:05:40.040 --> 00:05:42.680 located about two point five billion light years away. 119 00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:45.360 Okay, before we go any further, let's pause on that 120 00:05:45.399 --> 00:05:50.519 word repeating, because that is a crucial distinction in this field, 121 00:05:50.600 --> 00:05:50.959 isn't it. 122 00:05:50.959 --> 00:05:51.879 It's everything. 123 00:05:52.120 --> 00:05:54.639 My understanding is that most of these fast radio bursts 124 00:05:55.000 --> 00:05:57.680 they happen once and then they never happen again. 125 00:05:57.800 --> 00:06:01.519 That's right. The vast majority of FOI we've ever detected 126 00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:05.959 are one offs, a flash, and then silence forever from 127 00:06:05.959 --> 00:06:06.920 that spot in the sky. 128 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:09.399 And those must be incredibly hard to study. 129 00:06:09.480 --> 00:06:12.319 Oh they're a nightmare because you can't predict them. You 130 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.399 don't know where to look until it's already over. It's 131 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.079 like trying to study a lightning bolt without knowing where 132 00:06:17.120 --> 00:06:18.639 the storm is, or trying. 133 00:06:18.399 --> 00:06:20.439 To study a car crash after the tow truck has 134 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:21.000 already left. 135 00:06:21.079 --> 00:06:23.120 That's a great way to put it. But a repeater 136 00:06:23.319 --> 00:06:23.800 is different. 137 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:25.000 A repeater is a gift. 138 00:06:25.199 --> 00:06:27.839 It is a gift. It flashes again and again. It 139 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:30.720 gives you a specific address in the sky to focus on. 140 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:33.079 It says hey, I'm over here, keep watching. 141 00:06:32.839 --> 00:06:35.360 Which means you can keep the camera rolling, so to speak. 142 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:38.959 Exactly. Repeaters allow for long term monitoring. You can watch 143 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:41.639 them over time to see if anything in their environment changes. 144 00:06:41.720 --> 00:06:44.759 You can track their behavior, their patterns. And that is 145 00:06:44.839 --> 00:06:47.879 exactly what the FRB Key Science Program has been doing 146 00:06:47.920 --> 00:06:48.759 since twenty twenty. 147 00:06:48.839 --> 00:06:51.839 And this program was co led by Professor Bingzhang, the 148 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.040 chair Professor of Astrophysics. 149 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:56.399 At HKU CORRECT and they decided to keep a very 150 00:06:56.399 --> 00:07:00.600 close watch on this one specific source FRB two two 151 00:07:00.720 --> 00:07:02.040 zero five two nine A. 152 00:07:02.480 --> 00:07:05.959 And this is where the human element comes in, the patience. 153 00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:10.240 Here is where the patien's part of science really comes 154 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:13.480 into play. I think people often imagine science as these 155 00:07:13.519 --> 00:07:16.079 constant Eureka moments happening every day in the. 156 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:18.720 Lab, right the flashing light bulbs over people's heads. 157 00:07:18.519 --> 00:07:21.519 But often it just looks like monotony. For seventeen months 158 00:07:21.560 --> 00:07:22.600 they watched this source. 159 00:07:22.920 --> 00:07:25.040 Seventeen months is almost a year and a half of 160 00:07:25.199 --> 00:07:26.519 just staring. 161 00:07:26.279 --> 00:07:30.800 And for seventeen months, the data appeared well, unremarkable, unremarkable, 162 00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:35.199 just doing its normal thing, blinking occasionally, standard repeating FRB behavior. 163 00:07:35.600 --> 00:07:38.560 The signal looked clean, consistent, and frankly a bit boring. 164 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:41.480 I can just imagine the researchers checking the data every morning. 165 00:07:41.720 --> 00:07:45.639 Anything new, Nope, anything weird, nope, just seventeen months of 166 00:07:45.680 --> 00:07:48.759 steady as she goes. I mean, why keep looking? If 167 00:07:48.800 --> 00:07:51.079 I stared at a wall for seventeen months and it 168 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:53.120 didn't move, I would probably stop staring. 169 00:07:53.199 --> 00:07:55.480 Well, you need that baseline. That's the key. If you 170 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:59.959 don't know what normal looks like, you can't possibly recognize abnormal. 171 00:08:00.240 --> 00:08:03.360 Ah okay, you have to know the resting heartbeat of 172 00:08:03.439 --> 00:08:06.360 the system before you can diagnose in arrhythmia. You need 173 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:07.199 the control group. 174 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:09.759 That's a fair point. You can't spot the anomaly if 175 00:08:09.759 --> 00:08:11.480 you don't know the pattern exactly. 176 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:14.759 And then near the end of twenty twenty three, the 177 00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:15.839 boredom broke. 178 00:08:16.040 --> 00:08:18.120 The turning point, the exciting part. 179 00:08:18.199 --> 00:08:22.040 The data suddenly spiked. Something changed drastically in the signal 180 00:08:22.079 --> 00:08:22.800 they were receiving. 181 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:25.399 Okay, so let's unpack that change, because this is where 182 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.560 we get into the real physics of the discovery. Yeah, 183 00:08:28.560 --> 00:08:31.560 this wasn't just the signal got louder right, It wasn't 184 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:33.279 just a volume knob being turned up. 185 00:08:33.440 --> 00:08:36.120 No, not at all. It was about the quality of 186 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:39.480 the light, specifically something called polarization. 187 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:42.799 Polarization. Okay, I think most of us have heard that word, 188 00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:45.399 probably in the context of what sunglasses we do. 189 00:08:45.720 --> 00:08:49.279 That's the perfect daily life analogy. Think about light from 190 00:08:49.320 --> 00:08:52.000 the sun or a light bulb. Usually, the light waves 191 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:54.759 are vibrating in all directions at once, up and down, 192 00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:59.039 left and right, diagonally. It's a chaotic jumble of vibration, 193 00:08:59.279 --> 00:09:00.120 like a crowd. 194 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:02.840 Of people walking in every direction at a busy intersection. 195 00:09:03.039 --> 00:09:07.559 Perfect but polarized light is disciplined. All the waves are 196 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:11.039 vibrating in the same plane. Imagine shaking a rope. If 197 00:09:11.039 --> 00:09:13.360 you shake it up and down, the wave is vertical. 198 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:16.519 If you shake it side to side, the wave is horizontal. 199 00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:17.639 That's polarization. 200 00:09:17.879 --> 00:09:22.080 And these FRBs have what nearly perfect polarization. 201 00:09:21.679 --> 00:09:24.840 Near one hundred percent linear polarization. So it's like someone 202 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:27.039 is shaking a rope across the universe in a very 203 00:09:27.039 --> 00:09:30.879 specific direction. It's an incredibly pure signal and polarized sunglasses. 204 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.200 They work by blocking the waves that aren't lined. 205 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:35.639 Up correctly exactly. They act like a tiny picket fence. 206 00:09:35.960 --> 00:09:37.720 If you shake that rope up and down, it can 207 00:09:37.759 --> 00:09:39.399 pass through the vertical slats of the. 208 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:41.639 Fence, but if you shake it side to side, the. 209 00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:43.919 Fence stops it. That's how they cut down on glare. 210 00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:46.840 Okay, So we have these perfectly oriented waves. Let's just 211 00:09:46.840 --> 00:09:50.080 say they're vibrating up and down and they're traveling through 212 00:09:50.120 --> 00:09:54.000 space for two point five billion years. They're headed toward Earth. 213 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:55.600 What happens to them. 214 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:59.480 On the way, Well, space isn't perfectly empty, especially not 215 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:02.480 the space right around the source of the burst. As 216 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:05.279 these radio waves travel, they might pass through what we 217 00:10:05.360 --> 00:10:07.039 call magnetized plasma. 218 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:10.519 Magnetized plasma. That sounds like something from a sci fi weapon. 219 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:13.279 It sounds exotic, but it's actually one of the most 220 00:10:13.320 --> 00:10:16.519 common things in the universe. Plasma is just a gas 221 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:19.679 that's been superheated until the electrons are ripped off the atoms. 222 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:23.120 It's a hot charge soup, okay, And magnetize just means 223 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:24.759 there's a magnetic field running through it. 224 00:10:25.039 --> 00:10:27.639 So we have our rope wave traveling through this hot 225 00:10:27.679 --> 00:10:31.159 magnetic soup. What does the soup do to the rope? 226 00:10:31.240 --> 00:10:34.000 It twists it, It twists it, it rotates the angle 227 00:10:34.000 --> 00:10:37.279 of the vibration. This effect is called Ferritaday rotation. So 228 00:10:37.759 --> 00:10:40.639 if the waves started out vibrating up and down, after 229 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:44.039 passing through the magnetized plasma, it might be vibrating diagonally 230 00:10:44.200 --> 00:10:46.080 or even completely side to side by the time it 231 00:10:46.120 --> 00:10:46.679 gets to us. 232 00:10:46.879 --> 00:10:50.559 So the plasma literally grabs the wave and physically spins 233 00:10:50.600 --> 00:10:51.240 the orientation. 234 00:10:51.519 --> 00:10:53.159 That's a great way to think of it. And the 235 00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:56.639 more dense the plasma is, or the stronger the magnetic field, 236 00:10:57.120 --> 00:10:59.559 the more it twists. And we can measure that twist. 237 00:10:59.600 --> 00:10:59.840 Wow. 238 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:03.000 We use a metric called the rotation measure, or RM 239 00:11:03.120 --> 00:11:03.639 for short. 240 00:11:03.759 --> 00:11:07.519 So the RM is basically a number that tells you 241 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:10.240 how much has this signal been twisted by the stuff 242 00:11:10.279 --> 00:11:11.919 it flew through to get to us. 243 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:15.000 That is a perfect summary. The higher the RM number, 244 00:11:15.399 --> 00:11:17.840 the more stuff it flew through, or the more magnetic 245 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:18.559 that stuff was. 246 00:11:18.679 --> 00:11:20.600 Okay, so let's go back to our stakeout. We have 247 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:23.000 seventeen months of data from FAST. 248 00:11:22.879 --> 00:11:25.879 And during the seventeen months the rotation measure, that amount 249 00:11:25.879 --> 00:11:29.480 of twist was pretty constant. It had a steady low value. 250 00:11:29.240 --> 00:11:31.639 Which tells us the environment around the FRB was. 251 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:34.440 Stable, very stable. The light was passing through the same 252 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:38.080 amount of stuff every single day. Normal, boring, predictable. 253 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.120 And then came late twenty twenty. 254 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:43.480 Three entered doctor Ye Lee from the Purple Mountain Observatory. 255 00:11:44.039 --> 00:11:47.519 Doctor Lee was analyzing the data and noted an abrupt, 256 00:11:47.799 --> 00:11:50.279 massive increase in the rotation measure. 257 00:11:50.080 --> 00:11:51.720 How massive very time? Did it? Double? 258 00:11:52.039 --> 00:11:54.799 Yeah, it increased by more than a factor of one hundred. 259 00:11:54.720 --> 00:11:58.159 WHOA Okay, that is not a blip, that's not a 260 00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:01.200 measurement error. That is a fundamental distortion. 261 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:04.559 It was a massive distortion. The signal was being twisted 262 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:06.559 wildly compared to what they had seen for the last 263 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:09.480 year and a half. And here's the key piece of evidence. 264 00:12:10.120 --> 00:12:14.759 This spike didn't stay forever. It rapidly declined and returned 265 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.000 to normal over a period of just two weeks. 266 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.559 So seventeen months of normal, two weeks of extreme twisting, 267 00:12:20.919 --> 00:12:22.159 and then right back normal. 268 00:12:22.559 --> 00:12:25.759 The team dubbed this event an RM flare. 269 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:29.200 An RM flare, it sounds dramatic, so let's put on 270 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:31.840 our detective hats here. If the twist comes from passing 271 00:12:31.879 --> 00:12:36.120 through plasma. Then a sudden, massive increase in the twist 272 00:12:36.200 --> 00:12:40.480 means that a very dense, very magnetized plasma suddenly crossed 273 00:12:40.519 --> 00:12:42.799 the line of sight between Earth and the FRB. 274 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:44.399 That's the only logical conclusion. 275 00:12:44.600 --> 00:12:47.399 We like analogies, So is this like Imagine we're looking 276 00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:50.720 at a flashlight being that's the FRB, and for seventeen months, 277 00:12:50.759 --> 00:12:51.919 the air between us and. 278 00:12:51.879 --> 00:12:54.039 The flashlight is clear, perfectly clear, and. 279 00:12:54.039 --> 00:12:56.679 Then suddenly a thick cloud of smoke blows right across 280 00:12:56.679 --> 00:12:57.039 the beam. 281 00:12:57.120 --> 00:12:59.840 That is a great analogy. The smoke would distort the 282 00:12:59.879 --> 00:13:03.000 light light, make it shimmer and change. In this case, 283 00:13:03.039 --> 00:13:06.759 the smoke is a clump of magnetized plasma, and because 284 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:09.080 it only lasted two weeks, we know that this clump 285 00:13:09.159 --> 00:13:11.399 was moving, it crossed the path and then cleared out. 286 00:13:11.679 --> 00:13:14.679 So we have a smoking gun or maybe a passing 287 00:13:14.679 --> 00:13:16.919 cloud of plasma. But where did the plasma come from? 288 00:13:17.519 --> 00:13:20.799 The FRB is two point five billion light years away. 289 00:13:21.720 --> 00:13:23.559 We can't just send a drone to check it out. 290 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:25.679 No, we have to deduce it. And this is where 291 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.759 we move to the next phase of our investigation. Identifying 292 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:30.639 the culprit connecting the dots. 293 00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:34.080 Okay, we have twisted radio waves, we have a temporary 294 00:13:34.120 --> 00:13:36.919 cloud of plasma. How do we get from that to 295 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:39.960 binary star system? I mean, why couldn't it just be 296 00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:42.200 a random cloud floating by in deep space? 297 00:13:42.320 --> 00:13:45.440 It comes down to probability and physics. Deep space is 298 00:13:45.519 --> 00:13:49.120 actually pretty empty. The chances of a random dense cloud 299 00:13:49.200 --> 00:13:51.279 just happening to drift by exactly in front of this 300 00:13:51.360 --> 00:13:54.720 one tiny source are astronomically low. You need a source 301 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:57.320 for that plasma, You need an engine that produces it nearby. 302 00:13:57.440 --> 00:14:00.000 You need a smoke machine to make the smoke exactly. 303 00:14:00.759 --> 00:14:04.679 And Professor Bingsang provided the explanation. He said, the natural 304 00:14:04.759 --> 00:14:08.840 explanation for a sudden plasma cloud appearing and disappearing like 305 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:13.600 that is a companion star, a neighbor, a very close neighbor. 306 00:14:14.200 --> 00:14:16.799 Imagine the FRB source, which we're pretty sure as a 307 00:14:16.840 --> 00:14:18.559 magnetar and we can get to that in a minute. 308 00:14:18.799 --> 00:14:21.399 Just sitting there in space and right next to it, 309 00:14:21.639 --> 00:14:26.240 organing around it is another star, maybe something massive or 310 00:14:26.279 --> 00:14:27.679 maybe something more like our sun. 311 00:14:28.080 --> 00:14:32.399 Okay, so they're dancing around each other, a binary system, 312 00:14:32.840 --> 00:14:35.559 two stars locked together by gravity. 313 00:14:35.240 --> 00:14:38.240 And just like our son, other stars are active. They 314 00:14:38.240 --> 00:14:41.480 aren't just calm, glowing balls. They're volatile, they have weather. 315 00:14:41.879 --> 00:14:42.919 Sometimes they burp. 316 00:14:43.039 --> 00:14:43.519 They burp. 317 00:14:43.759 --> 00:14:47.159 Technically, it's called a coronal mass ejection, or a CME. 318 00:14:47.320 --> 00:14:49.639 You've probably heard of solar storms, oh right, We hear. 319 00:14:49.559 --> 00:14:51.759 About those with our own sun all the time. When 320 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:53.919 the Sun spits out a huge cloud of stuff that 321 00:14:53.919 --> 00:14:56.360 can mess with our satellites or create the northern lights. 322 00:14:56.600 --> 00:14:58.879 That's the one. And that stuff it spits out is 323 00:14:58.919 --> 00:15:02.519 a massive clump you guessed it, magnetized plasma. 324 00:15:02.679 --> 00:15:02.919 It is. 325 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:07.720 So the scenario they proposes this, the companion star launches 326 00:15:07.759 --> 00:15:12.159 a CME, a big blob of plasma. This blob physically 327 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:15.559 moves out into space, and in this specific case, its 328 00:15:15.679 --> 00:15:18.320 path took it right in front of the FRB source 329 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:19.679 from our perspective. 330 00:15:19.240 --> 00:15:21.840 So it moves right between us and the FRB exactly. 331 00:15:21.879 --> 00:15:24.120 It didn't block it completely, but it put a very 332 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:27.559 dense magnetized filter in front of it. The radio waves 333 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:30.399 from the FRB had to pass through this fresh blob 334 00:15:30.399 --> 00:15:33.879 of plasma to get to Earth. That causes the massive 335 00:15:33.879 --> 00:15:35.559 twist the RM flare. 336 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:38.440 And as the blob keeps moving on its trajectory. 337 00:15:37.879 --> 00:15:41.120 The distortion fades, and after about two weeks, the coast 338 00:15:41.159 --> 00:15:43.480 is clear, the blob is moved past our line of sight, 339 00:15:43.759 --> 00:15:45.440 and the signal goes right back to normal. 340 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:48.519 That is incredible detective work. You're watching a tiny blip 341 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:50.360 of light, you see it get twisted, and from that 342 00:15:50.399 --> 00:15:52.759 you realize, oh, the guy standing next to him and 343 00:15:52.799 --> 00:15:53.240 just sneezed. 344 00:15:53.480 --> 00:15:57.679 That is effectively what happened, a stellar sneeze. Yeah, and 345 00:15:57.720 --> 00:15:59.320 the math backs it up completely. 346 00:15:59.639 --> 00:16:02.080 This is where Professor yuan pe Yang from U nine 347 00:16:02.200 --> 00:16:03.879 University comes into the picture, isn't it? 348 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:08.559 Yes? Professor Yang ran the numbers. They calculated the size 349 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:10.879 and the density of the plasma clump that would be 350 00:16:10.919 --> 00:16:13.879 required to cause that specific amount of distortion they saw, 351 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:17.639 and it matched perfectly with the known properties of CMEs 352 00:16:18.159 --> 00:16:20.759 launched by our own sun and other stars we've studied 353 00:16:20.759 --> 00:16:21.480 in the Milky Way. 354 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:22.440 So it fits the profile. 355 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:25.360 If fits the profile perfectly, if it walks like a 356 00:16:25.440 --> 00:16:28.240 duck and quacks like a duck, or in this case, 357 00:16:28.320 --> 00:16:31.480 if it twists light exactly like a solar flare, it. 358 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:34.080 Is probably a solar flare from a neighborstar. I just 359 00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:36.799 want to clarify something for you. The listener. Though. We 360 00:16:36.840 --> 00:16:39.120 didn't see this companion star, did we We didn't take 361 00:16:39.120 --> 00:16:40.200 an optical picture of it. 362 00:16:40.279 --> 00:16:43.919 No, absolutely not. At two point five billion light years, 363 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:47.919 Trying to visually see a standard star sitting right next 364 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:52.200 to a bright, flaring FRB source is basically impossible with 365 00:16:52.240 --> 00:16:55.399 current tech. It's too far and way too faint compared 366 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:58.120 to the burst itself. We saw it through its. 367 00:16:57.960 --> 00:16:59.759 Inflow, through the mess it made exactly. 368 00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:02.639 It's all the plasma throughout. It's like seeing footprints up 369 00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:04.880 here in the snow. You don't see the person who 370 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:06.839 made them, but you know for a fact someone just 371 00:17:06.880 --> 00:17:07.400 walked by. 372 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:10.599 That's a great image. Or seeing leaves rustle in the wind. 373 00:17:10.640 --> 00:17:13.000 You don't see the wind, but you see its effects precisely. 374 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:16.799 And we should mention this wasn't just fast working entirely 375 00:17:16.839 --> 00:17:21.680 alone in a vacuum. Australia's Parks telescope also contributed continuous 376 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:24.960 radio observations which helped verify these findings. It was a 377 00:17:25.000 --> 00:17:26.599 real cross hemisphere effort. 378 00:17:26.799 --> 00:17:29.640 So we have the evidence, we have the culprit, a 379 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:33.240 messy neighbor star. What does this mean for the big picture. 380 00:17:33.599 --> 00:17:36.519 Let's move to the implications here. Why does it matter 381 00:17:36.599 --> 00:17:38.400 so much if an FRB has a buddy. 382 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:41.960 This is where it gets really fascinating for astrophysics, because 383 00:17:41.960 --> 00:17:45.880 this discovery helps solidify the identity of the FRB source 384 00:17:45.920 --> 00:17:49.079 itself engine the engine. For a long time, the leading 385 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:52.359 suspect for what creates frb's has been a magnetar. 386 00:17:52.559 --> 00:17:55.480 A magnetar, which is arguably the most metal thing in 387 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:56.440 the entire universe. 388 00:17:56.519 --> 00:17:59.400 It really is. A magnetar is a type of neutron star, 389 00:17:59.480 --> 00:18:02.240 so it's the crushed, collapsed core of a dead star, 390 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:05.880 and it's incredibly dense. A single teaspoon of it would 391 00:18:05.880 --> 00:18:06.279 weigh a. 392 00:18:06.240 --> 00:18:08.400 Billion tons a billion tons. 393 00:18:08.160 --> 00:18:11.279 But its defining feature is the magnetic field. It has 394 00:18:11.319 --> 00:18:14.799 a magnetic field that is trillions of times stronger than Earth's. 395 00:18:14.720 --> 00:18:17.240 So strong it would literally rip you apart the atomic 396 00:18:17.319 --> 00:18:18.559 level if you got anywhere near it. 397 00:18:18.599 --> 00:18:23.480 That's the one. These are extreme, extreme objects, and the 398 00:18:23.599 --> 00:18:26.079 kind of energy required to produce a fast radio burst 399 00:18:26.160 --> 00:18:28.960 fits perfectly with what a magnetar can output during a 400 00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:31.599 stark wick or a magnetic reconnection event. 401 00:18:31.680 --> 00:18:33.640