Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
LiveScience
LiveScience
Robert Lea

Scientists may finally be close to explaining strange radio signals from beyond the Milky Way

Radio bursts in night sky.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense, short-lived blasts of radio waves hailing from beyond the Milky Way that can emit the same amount of energy in just thousandths of a second that the sun takes three days to emit.

However, despite their power and the fact that around 10,000 FRBs could erupt in the sky over Earth every day, these blasts of radiowaves remain mysterious. One of the biggest puzzles surrounding FRBs is why most flash once and then disappear while a tiny minority (less than 3 percent) repeat the flash. This has led scientists on a quest to discover the mechanisms that launch FRBs. Some even believe different celestial objects can produce both repeating and non-repeating FRBs.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.