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Community Community KUQ gives Rione away life time Luzzatti, P7achievement P16 29-year- award to Dr. Rahat Indori old photographer and for promoting Urdu literature expert, examines language and literature Naples neighbourhood in across the world. more depth. Friday, January 19, 2018 Jumada I 2, 1439 AH DOHA 15°C—24°C TODAY PUZZLES 12 & 13 LIFESTYLE/HOROSCOPE 14 COVER Mystery bursts STORY A series of fast radio bursts from more than 3 billion light-years away leave astronomers in awe. P2-3 2 GULF TIMES Friday, January 19, 2018 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Burning bright Since their discovery from older archived data, fast-radio bursts have confounded astronomers. These bursts last PRAYER TIME only milliseconds, but they are incredibly bright, a sign Fajr 5.01am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.21am Zuhr (noon) 11.44am that whatever caused them was very powerful Asr (afternoon) 2.47pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.10pm Isha (night) 6.40pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce STUNNING: Fast Radio Bursts, brief yet brilliant eruptions of cosmic radio waves, have baff led astronomers since they were first (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) reported nearly a decade ago. Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 The problem is that these bursts each a star-forming region of its host galaxy, Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 By Amina Khan only happen once — leading scientists the scientists think FRB 121102 is linked to Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 to suspect that these were cataclysmic, stellar birth or death. Qatar Airways 40253374 death-throe explosions. So even if a For this paper, the scientists wanted to stronomers watching a telescope is lucky enough to catch one fi gure out more about the environment fast-radio burst fl ashing in the act of going off , there no way to go around this source. Using data from from more than 3 billion back to the same source for more detailed the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico light-years away say that measurements. and the Green Bank Telescope in West its source lies in an extreme FRB 121102, sitting about 3 billion Virginia, the scientists looked at the te Unqu Aenvironment with a powerful magnetic light-years away in a dwarf galaxy, was polarisation of the light: how much it’s uo ot fi eld — perhaps a supermassive black diff erent. Since its discovery in 2012 it been distorted in specifi c ways. They Q e hole, or the remains of a supernova. has repeatedly sent out fl ashes of radio found that radio waves have been twisted Only I can The fi ndings about the phenomenon waves, allowing researchers to train their by a magnetic fi eld — an extremely change my life. No one known as FRB 121102, described in the telescopes on it to learn more about its powerful one, judging from the degree of journal Nature and at the American origins. contortion. can do it for me. Astronomical Society meeting outside “We know of thirty sources of fast “We’ve seen this eff ect in other fast Washington, hint that this mysterious radio bursts, and this is the only one we’ve radio burst sources before, but in this case source of powerful radio waves whose ever seen that repeats,” senior author the eff ect is 500 times larger than what — Carol Burnett origin has puzzled scientists for years may Jason Hessels, an astrophysicist at the we’ve seen at other sources,” Hessels said. fi nally be revealing its secrets. University of Amsterdam and ASTRON, “That was quite surprising.” Since their discovery in 2007 from said in an interview. These kinds of polarisation eff ects, older archived data, fast-radio bursts Having now observed more than 100 he added, can be seen around powerful have confounded astronomers. These fl ashes from this single source over the phenomena such as the supermassive bursts last only milliseconds, shorter last few years, researchers haven’t picked black holes at the centre of galaxies. That than the blink of an eye, but in that tiny up a pattern to the bursts yet — aside makes some sense for FRB 121102, since moment they are incredibly bright, a from the fact that they often seemed to be the ionised gas, or plasma, around the Community Editor sign that whatever caused them was very clustered in time, instead of evenly spaced black hole could be responsible for the powerful. apart. magnetic fi eld that’s twisting the neutron Kamran Rehmat “It’s some sort of extreme physics that Because of the extremely short, star’s signal. e-mail: [email protected] causes this emission and so the goal is to repeated bursts, the source was thought The researchers think these repeated Telephone: 44466405 understand that,” study co-author Betsey to be a kind of neutron star: either a pulsar fast radio bursts are coming from a Fax: 44350474 Adams of ASTRON, the Netherlands (which spins very fast) or a magnetar pulsar that happens to be sitting near a Institute for Radio Astronomy, said at a (which spins but also has an extra strong growing supermassive black hole that’s briefi ng. magnetic fi eld). Because it seems to sit in surrounded by gas and dust. But there are Friday, January 19, 2018 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY TRACKER: The Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, which was used to track and study the location of FRB 121102, a series of mysterious light flashes. Scientists now think the bursts originated from a neutron star in an extreme environment. other possibilities: Perhaps a pulsar said.) That could mean that the other is interacting with the nebula from a fast radio bursts are also repeats, and “Whatever its dead star to create the strange repeat we just haven’t had a proper space source, whatever signal. lens that would allow us to see more There are problems with both than one. its environment, of those ideas, Hessel pointed out. Whatever its source, whatever its If the neutron star’s radio signal is environment, and whether or not it and whether or being twisted by the plasma around a is similar to the other one-shot fast not it is similar to nearby supermassive black hole, why radio bursts, understanding FRB would such a massive black hole exist 121102 will help astronomers to better the other one-shot in such a small dwarf galaxy? And if understand the universe we live in, it’s being aff ected by a surrounding Hessels said. fast radio bursts, nebula, how did it get to be so bright? After all, even though only a few Even the idea that the source itself dozen individual sources in total have understanding FRB is some kind of pulsar doesn’t explain been found, researchers estimate 121102 will help why the bursts are so clumped. that perhaps 10,000 fast radio bursts Spinning neutron stars have highly fl ash across the night sky every single astronomers to better regular periods. day. And just as a fl ashlight on a dark It could also be that plasma is night can illuminate all the dust and understand the acting as a sort of lens, focusing the fog particles in its beam, each of these radio light and allowing us to see it radio bursts can reveal a little more of universe we live in” clearly. (In the black-hole scenario, the contents of the space between the — Jason Hessels, an the plasma could be both polarising source and us. — Los Angeles Times/ and lensing the radio waves, Hessel TNS astrophysicist The moon is about to do something it hasn’t done in more than 150 years Earth in its orbit, appearing bigger will come too close to when the By Alex Harris and brighter than normal. moon sets for the phenomenon to On January 31, the moon will be be visible. full for the second time in a month, Because of the way the light fi lters all it whatever you like a rare occasion — it happens once through the atmosphere during — a blue red moon, a every two and a half years — known an eclipse, blue light is bounced purple moon, a blood as a blue moon. away from the moon, while red moon — but the moon To top it off , there will also be light is refl ected. The eclipsed will be a special sight on a total lunar eclipse. But unlike moon’s reddish colour earned it the CJanuary 31. last year’s solar eclipse, this nickname blood moon. Three separate celestial events sky-watching event isn’t going “We’re seeing all of the Earth’s will occur simultaneously that night, to be as visible in the continental sunrises and sunsets at that moment resulting in what some are calling a United States. The best views of refl ected from the surface of the super blue blood moon eclipse. The the middle-of-the-night eclipse Moon,” Sarah Noble, a program astronomical rarity hasn’t happened will be in central and eastern Asia, scientist at NASA headquarters, said SPOTLIGHT: The moon will once again be a special sight on January 31. for more than 150 years, according to Indonesia, New Zealand and in a release.

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