Another Piece of the Puzzle? Mysterious Radio Signal From Space Detected

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Another Piece of the Puzzle? Mysterious Radio Signal From Space Detected

Over the past decade, researchers have unsuccessfully tried to determine the phenomenon that causes the so-called fast radio bursts, radio pulses ranging from a fraction of a millisecond to a few milliseconds in duration.

An international team of astronomers has managed to track the second-ever in history of observations source of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs), which is located in a spiral galaxy similar to the Milky Way, according to their study published in the journal Nature on Monday.

Using sophisticated telescopes of the European VLBI Network, the researchers revealed that the source is about 500 million light-years away from Earth, making it the closest known source of the FRBs.

Co-author of the study Kenzie Nimmo from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands explained that the object’s location is “radically different from that of not only the previously located repeating FRB, but also all previously studied FRBs”.

The source of the new repeating FRB, also known as 180916.J0158+65, was tracked on 19 June 2019, about a year after it was initially discovered by Canada’s CHIME telescope. In five hours, astronomers detected a total of four bursts that lasted less than two thousandths of a second.

The FRBs, the first of which was identified back in 2007, are unique high-energy pulses that are believed to contain an intense emission of radio light similar to that of the Sun.

Shedding more light on the host galaxy of the FRBs may help astronomers determine the origin of these mysterious bursts, which in turn may allow researchers to reveal additional facts about the Universe.

Sourse: sputniknews.com

Another Piece of the Puzzle? Mysterious Radio Signal From Space Detected

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