Astronomers on earth are getting a radio signal from space known as fast radio burst (FRBs) that are repeating alien radio signals with extraterrestrial origins. These FRBs are estimated to come from half-billion light-years away. What catches astronomers' attention is the pattern it creates which may mean that it comes from an intelligent being, and not a mere random sound.
These fast radio bursts (FRBs) are only a millisecond long from interstellar space. One type is just one radio burst and silence, with no repeat broadcast. Scientist notice this deep space signal are short and fast, at multiple intervals. Multiple signals are sent via a sporadic or a cluster of signals which baffles the researchers' investigation it.
These signals were intercepted by scientists at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment/Fast Radio Burst Project from September 18, 2018 to October 30, 2019. What caught their attention is FRBs that were active every 16.35 days, in four days with an FRB each hour. After that, the signal went dead, radio silence for 12 days.
This fast radio burst is a repeater, not a one-off event and it got the designation FRB 180916.J0158+65.
CHIME/FRB detected several sources of eight FRBs last year, with the first one detected in 2018. This find comes from another spiral galaxy, like the Milky Way galaxy (MWg) that is 500 million light-years away (LYA) w hich is nearer to our corner of the universe.
Tracking the source of the FRBs is hoped to figure out what caused it to transmit in such patterns. All these radio bursts are coming from all over which is very puzzling to the scientists.
One FRB called FRB 180916.J0158+65 was tracked down to a small dwarf galaxy which may have a star and heavy metals. Another is FRB 180916 that had its origin in the spiral boundaries of a galaxy that looks like the Milky Way galaxy (MWg). The radio signal from space is scattered in the place most are detected.
The eccentricity of this alien radio signal and its patterned broadcasts are eerily regular, causing speculations how they are transmitted in deep space.
The 16.36-sequencing of transmissions and the repeating fast radio burst is one clue to decipher what is producing the signals. "The discovery of a 16.35-day periodicity in a repeating FRB source is an important clue to the nature of this object," the researchers wrote in their study.
Other explanations are considered to cause the signals which can be a star in orbit around something unknown or some quantum entanglement in the galactic outer rim. One other explanation is a neutron star or binary star system that creates these FRBs.
A neutron star is the burnt-out remains of a supernova, just about the size of Atlanta but with a heavier mass compared to the sun. A quasar and a massive star might be thee source of these patterns of FRB which can be created by emitting a stellar wind from the massive star. However, this isn't certain yet.
Narrowing down the source of the radio signal from space might be an alien signal that is unknown. Whatever we will learn from these radio waves from space, it will be a new chapter for humanity should it be of intelligent origin.
