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Artist’s concept of a magnetar, a leading candidate for the source of fast radio bursts. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Do mysterious radio flashes also shine in X-rays?
Do mysterious radio flashes also shine in X-rays?
Fast radio bursts are flashes of radio waves lasting just a few thousandths of a second, arriving from galaxies billions of light-years away. Nobody yet knows exactly what makes them. Daksha will search for X-ray and gamma-ray flashes arriving at the same moment — a key test of the leading ideas.
For astronomers: technical details
For astronomers: technical details
FRBs have isotropic radio energies of ~10³⁸–10⁴² erg. The 2020 April 28 FRB-like burst from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 was accompanied by a hard X-ray burst (Epeak ~65 keV, ~10³⁹ erg). For a 10 ms burst, Daksha’s 5σ fluence sensitivity is 7×10⁻⁸ erg cm⁻², enabling detections or constraining limits for FRBs found by CHIME, ASKAP and future facilities. See Bhalerao et al. 2024, Science with the Daksha High Energy Transients Mission (Experimental Astronomy 57, 23), section “Fast Radio Burst Counterparts”. All Daksha papers are listed on our Publications page.
What are fast radio bursts?
What are fast radio bursts?
First discovered in 2007, fast radio bursts (FRBs) are among the most puzzling signals in astronomy. Each lasts only a few milliseconds, yet in that instant it can release as much energy as the Sun gives out in a day — or even in several years. Radio telescopes have now found thousands of them, from all over the sky, but what powers them is still debated.
The magnetar connection
The magnetar connection
In April 2020, a magnetar in our own galaxy, SGR 1935+2154, produced a bright radio flash that looked like a weak fast radio burst — and at the same moment, X-ray satellites saw an X-ray burst from it. This is the strongest evidence yet that at least some fast radio bursts come from magnetars. Other ideas, including colliding neutron stars, may explain some bursts too.
How Daksha will help
How Daksha will help
Most theories predict that fast radio bursts should also produce X-rays or gamma rays, but for distant bursts these would be very faint. So far, no X-ray or gamma-ray flash has been seen from a fast radio burst beyond our galaxy. Daksha, watching almost the whole sky with high sensitivity, can check every burst found by radio telescopes such as CHIME and ASKAP. Either detecting a flash or showing that none is there will narrow down what fast radio bursts really are.
Support Daksha
Support Daksha
If you would like to see Daksha fly, please take a minute to fill in our short support form. Every response helps show the scientific community’s interest in the mission.
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