Scientists discover mystery repeating 'fast radio bursts' blasted from 1.5 billion light years away
Something — or someone — is sending massive radio waves throughout the universe.
Researchers have rounded up dozens of "fast radio bursts" resonating throughout the universe, but have only seen two instances where waves repeatedly come from the same source, per a paper published Wednesday in Nature. Now, with these repetitive examples on the books, researchers think they may be able to figure out what's causing them.
Researchers first identified fast radio bursts in 2007 and have picked up 36 waves since, CBC News says. The bursts are just milliseconds long and travel to Earth from millions of light years away via some immense release of energy. Scientists speculate they could stem from black holes or exploded stars called neutron stars. But overall, they "don't know what can cause an emission that is that powerful," a study coauthor tells Mashable.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Most bursts come from their own unique locations, but six of them recently "originat[ed] from a single position on the sky," the study writes. The whole series was detected by an enormous Canadian radio telescope called CHIME, which wasn't even operating at full capacity at the time, CNN says. So with the data from this discovery, and with CHIME fully activated now, researchers could discover "several more pieces in the puzzle" in the near future, a CHIME team member tells CNN.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.
-
Kristi Noem and the politics of puppy killing
Talking Point Revelations in Republican's upcoming memoir may have doomed her political career
By The Week UK Published
-
Death toll in Brazil flooding tops 100
Speed Read The record rainfall is linked to El Niño, which has been exacerbated by climate change
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
RFK Jr. said brain 'worm' caused memory fog
Speed Read The presidential candidate gave an unexpected reason for his past cognitive issues
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Blind people will listen to next week's total eclipse
Speed Read While they can't see the event, they can hear it with a device that translates the sky's brightness into music
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Melting polar ice is messing with global timekeeping
Speed Read Ice loss caused by climate change is slowing the Earth's rotation
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
An amphibian that produces milk?
speed read Caecilians, worm-like amphibians that live underground, produce a milk-like substance for their hatchlings
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Jupiter's Europa has less oxygen than hoped
speed read Scientists say this makes it less likely that Jupiter's moon harbors life
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Why February 29 is a leap day
Speed Read It all started with Julius Caesar
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
US spacecraft nearing first private lunar landing
Speed Read If touchdown is successful, it will be the first U.S. mission to the moon since 1972
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Scientists create 'meaty' rice for eco-friendly protein
Speed Read Korean scientists have invented a new hybrid food, consisting of beef muscle and fat cells grown inside grains of rice
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
New images reveal Neptune and Uranus in different colours than originally thought
Speed Read Voyager 2 images from the 1980s led to 'modern misconception'
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published