A dead star just let out a massive flash of heat that makes zero sense based on everything else we know about them.
April 3, 2026
Original Paper
GECAM discovery of a peculiar magnetar X-ray burst (MXB 221120) from SGR J1935+2154 associated with a fast radio burst
arXiv · 2604.02261
The Takeaway
Fast Radio Bursts are mysterious cosmic signals. While most flashes from these stars look like chaotic explosions, this one was a smooth, heat-based signal, suggesting we are seeing a totally new physical mechanism for how these stars scream across the universe.
From the abstract
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are enigmatic cosmic transients of millisecond duration observed in the radio band. The identification of FRB-associated magnetar X-ray bursts (MXBs) from galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 suggests that at least a fraction of FRBs can be produced from magnetar activity. However, the sample size of FRB-associated MXBs is still very small. Here we report a bright and peculiar FRB-associated MXB from SGR J1935+2154 detected by GECAM on November 20, 2022, dubbed MXB 221120. W