Astrophysicists are trying to wrap their heads around another twist in the story of fast radio bursts (FRBs) – mysterious radio frequency emissions that reach us from distant galaxies. FRBs are extremely powerful, discharging from their source somewhere out in deep space as much energy in milliseconds as the output of 500 million suns. Yet they are so short-lived that astronomers have only been able to track them for milliseconds, as their ghostly pings show up on radio telescope consoles like a ‘now you see, it now you don’t’ trick.
What are fast radio bursts?
Ever since astronomers detected the first FRB in 2007, more than 600 of these celestial flashes have been recorded to date. But we know very little about their exact origins and why they show up as such short-lived spurts. Due to their elusive nature, all these FRBs were detected by happenstance – when astronomers used their radio telescopes to scan the right part of the sky at the right time.
