Astronomers have detected an enigmatic, powerful burst of radiowaves that comes from the deep space. The blasts of radio signals are helping them to map the mystery behind these peculiar phenomena.
These short-lived signals are known as 'fast radio bursts' (FRBs) that coming from random locations. Researchers have heard the repeating signals that emanates from a single unknown source outside our galaxy. The caused or the source of the signals is still unknown, but some astronomers speculate that the unknown signals are from the distant alien civilizations.
Dozens of these brilliant flashes have been captured by the telescopes on Earth. And according to the reports, no two bursts are exactly the same. A few fraction of a second is all blazes with the intense amount of energy.
The fast radio bursts lasted than half a millisecond-that is 0.1% of the time it takes for humans to blink. The nature and origin of the fast radio bursts are still hotly debated. Some astronomers have suggested these brief, intense flashes are flares produced in the atmospheres of certain stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
Others speculate that they are caused by cosmic collisions such as a neutron star that collides with a black hole in a distant galaxy, or speculated that they could be alien signals. Astronomers cannot figure out what kind of astrophysical motor is churning away in the cosmos.
"We don't understand what the population of objects is and how often any given object bursts, or how far away they are," says Jim Cordes of Cornell University.
Researchers don't have enough data to prove where exactly the explosions are coming from. However, the team is sure that they come from outside our galaxy based on the amount of plasma they dispersed.
Astronomers have tried to do an indirect estimate of distances to measure how the radio signal is smeared out. With this, the distance of the fast radio burst from Earth can be estimated using several assumptions. The measurements indicate that the origin or source of the fast radio bursts come from far beyond the galaxy.
