Scientists track intense radio signals from space to their origin - and are shocked by what they find
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‘Just when you think you understand an astrophysical phenomenon, the universe turns around and surprises us,’ says scientist involved. Scientists have tracked an intense radio signal coming from deep in space to its origin – and been left shocked by what they found.
For years, researchers have been looking to explain fast radio bursts, or FRBs, which are very short and very powerful blasts energy coming from deep in space. Possible explanations have included everything from black holes to alien technology. Researchers hope to be able to understand more about them by following them back to their original galaxies, in the hope of seeing what extreme conditions might send out such powerful blasts across the universe.
Now, scientists have tracked one of those blasts back to its home galaxy. But that galaxy is very old and dead, as well as being strangely shaped. Previously, researchers have only found FRBs coming from much younger galaxies. As such, it breaks our existing understanding of where they might be coming from.
The discovery might mean that the mysterious cosmic events are coming from much more diverse places than we ever realised, scientists say. “This new FRB shows us that just when you think you understand an astrophysical phenomenon, the universe turns around and surprises us,” said Northwestern’s Wen-fai Fong, a senior author on two studies reporting the new findings. “This ‘dialogue’ with the universe is what makes our field of time-domain astronomy so incredibly thrilling.”.
