New radio transients were discovered using MeerKAT

Using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, an international team of astronomers detected 26 new galactic radio transients. Most of them turned out to be rotating radio transients (RRAT). The discovery is detailed in a research article published January 14 on arXiv preprint server.

Broadly speaking, radio transients are bursts of radio emission of uncertain origin. In the case of radio broadcast neutron starssuch objects are called pulsars if they appear to flash or pulsate as their magnetic axis moves through the observer’s line of sight.

RRATs are a subclass of pulsars characterized by sporadic emission. The first objects of this type were identified in 2006 as sporadically appearing scattered pulses with frequencies ranging from several minutes to several hours. However, the nature of these transients is still unclear. These are assumed to be ordinary pulsars that experience strong pulses.

Now, a group of astronomers led by James D. Turner of the University of Manchester in the UK report the detection of new radio transients in our Milky Way galaxy. Their discovery is part of the TRAnsients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (MeerTRAP) project.

“The MeerTRAP real-time search pipeline performs commensally with MeerKAT telescope observations. (…) MeerTRAP discovers these new sources with a frequency better than monthly, which highlights the importance of such commensal observations,” the scientists explained.

In total, the observations identified 26 new galactic radio transients, and most of them appear to belong to the RRAT subclass. In addition, two pulsars and one RRAT were discovered that were independently discovered by other studies.

According to the paper, the newly discovered transients have dispersion measures ranging from 8.46 to 346.5 pcs/cm³. The spin periods of the identified RRATs range from 1.06 to 17.49 seconds. The RRAT with the longest spin period, designated MTP0044/PSR J2218+2902, is another addition to the growing population of slowly rotating neutron stars that challenge models of magnetospheric radio emission.

Moreover, astronomers were able to derive multi-year time solutions for five RRATs. The temporal parameters of these objects suggest an age of several million years and a low surface magnetic field intensity, which is characteristic of the population of known RRATs.

The authors of the paper noted that two of the detected galactic radio transients, namely MTP0021/PSR J0219-06 and MTP0023/PSR J1319-4536, are characterized by complex structures, brightness and pulse variability. That’s why Turner’s team recommends them for further study.

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