New observations are challenging a hypothesis about what produces these energetic bursts of radio waves.

A repeating fast radio burst (FRB) with a changeable, polarized magnetic field has deepened the mystery of what produces these enigmatic millisecond-long bursts of radio waves from deep space.

Related: Magnetar may hold clues to the mystery of fast radio bursts.

In spring 2021, China- and U.S.-based scientists used the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) — the world's largest single-dish radio telescope — in China to detect 1,863 bursts coming from FRB 20201124A over the course of 54 days. .

Notably, for the first 36 days of observation, the strength of the magnetic field in the immediate vicinity of the FRB source varied?

There was also strong circular polarization (describing the direction of oscillation of the radio waves) in the radio signals, and oscillating linear and circular polarization, as well as variations in the angle of the polarization depending on the wavelength. M

In certain conditions the exploding star produces a more magnetic neutron star than usual — a magnetar.

Superluminous supernovas and gamma-ray bursts have been suggested as the progenitors of magnetars.

Gamma-ray bursts, in particular, tend to occur in galaxies with lower abundances of heavy elements (metals).

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— Hubble Space Telescope traces 5 mysterious 'fast radio bursts' to distant spiral galaxies .