Journal Article

A repeating fast radio burst source localized to a nearby spiral galaxy

Stairs, I. H, Pen, U.-L, Zwaniga, A. V, Pleunis, Z, Bassa, C. G, Good, D. C, Josephy, A, Archibald, A. M, Scholz, P, Michilli, D, Boyle, P. J, Marcote, B, Gourdji, K, Aggarwal, K, Lang, D, Andersen, B, Kaspi, V. M, Ng, C, Keimpema, A, Butler, B. J, Bandura, K, Masui, K, Law, C. J, Fonseca, E, Rahman, M, Mena-Parra, J, Hessels, J. W. T, Lazio, T. J. W, Rafiei-Ravandi, M, Bower, G. C, Burke-Spolaor, S, Dobbs, M, Li, D. Z, Kirichenko, A. Yu, Demorest, P, Linford, J. D, Smith, K. M, Lin, H.-H, Cassanelli, T, Paragi, Z, Naidu, A, Bhardwaj, M, Brar, C, Chawla, P, Vanderlinde, K, Kirsten, F, Patel, C, Karuppusamy, R, Giri, U, Nimmo, K, Tendulkar, S. P, Siegel, S. R, Landecker, T. L, Renard, A

2020

Overview

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief, bright, extragalactic radio flashes (1,2). Their physical origin remains unknown, but dozens of possible models have been postulated³. Some FRB sources exhibit repeat bursts⁴⁻⁷. Although over a hundred FRB sources have been discovered⁸, only four have been localized and associated with a host galaxy⁹⁻¹², and just one of these four is known to emit repeating FRBs⁹. The properties of the host galaxies, and the local environments of FRBs, could provide important clues about their physical origins. The first known repeating FRB, however, was localized to a low-metallicity, irregular dwarf galaxy, and the apparently non-repeating sources were localized to higher-metallicity, massive elliptical or star-forming galaxies, suggesting that perhaps the repeating and apparently non-repeating sources could have distinct physical origins. Here we report the precise localization of a second repeating FRB source⁶, FRB 180916.J0158+65, to a star-forming region in a nearby (redshift 0.0337 ± 0.0002) massive spiral galaxy, whose properties and proximity distinguish it from all known hosts. The lack of both a comparably luminous persistent radio counterpart and a high Faraday rotation measure⁶ further distinguish the local environment of FRB 180916.J0158+65 from that of the single previously localized repeating FRB source, FRB 121102. This suggests that repeating FRBs may have a wide range of luminosities, and originate from diverse host galaxies and local environments.

• Publisher: Nature Research,Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 639/33/34/4127 / 639/33/34/864 / Annan fysik / Annan geovetenskap och miljövetenskap / Astronomi, astrofysik och kosmologi / Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology / Humanities and Social Sciences / multidisciplinary / Observations / Origin / Other Earth and Related Environmental Sciences / Other Physics Topics / Radio waves / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Speed / Spiral galaxies / Star formation