Astronomers Detected A Giant Radio Flare

Russian astronomers have recently ascertained an enormous radio flare from a strong X-ray binary supply referred to as Cygnus X-3 (Cyg X-3 for short). The said flare occurred after more than five years of quiescence of this source.

According to Russia Trendolizer, the invention was presented in a paper and published last Dec. 2 on the arXiv pre-print server. Classified as a microquasar, a powerful X-ray supply, named Cygnus X-3 or Cyg X-3 for short, is believed to be a compact object in a binary system.

It had been originally discovered in X-rays in 1967 and can be observed in X-rays, gamma rays, infrared and radio. The supply is found 23,000 lightyears away within the constellation Cygnus and is observed to have an orbital periodicity of approximately 4.8 hours, according to Phys.org.

Cygnus X-3 experiences periodic radio outbursts. Its very first recorded significant flare came about in 1972 and has increased the radio frequency emissions from this source a thousand times.

Just recently, in March 2011, astronomers recorded a giant flare and later went to dormancy in the succeeding week. The section of quiescence was interrupted by the last giant radio outburst that came about last September 2016 and was foretold by a team of astronomers that was led by Sergei Trushkin of the Special Astrophysical Observatory (SAO) in Nizhnij Arkhys, Russia.

The researchers ascertained Cygnus X-3 with SAO's RATAN-600 radio telescope as a part of a long-run, multi-frequency monitoring campaign of microquasars. The scientists wrote in the paper that in the long-term multi-frequency monitoring program of the microquasars with RATAN-600, they have discovered the giant flare from X-ray binary Cyg X-3 on Sep. 13, 2016.

According to the analysis, Cygnus X-3's 2016 outburst interrupted an almost five-and-a-half-year of period in its quiescence. The flare of 2016 occurred when transition of the source to a 'hyper-soft' X-ray state, as within the case of the previous outburst in 2011.