This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

Parkes-NFC

Humanity has made significant progress understanding the cosmos in recent decades thanks to astonishing instruments like the Hubble Space Telescope. There are nevertheless some phenomena that defy explanation, though. For example, fast radio bursts. Astronomers simply noticed these mysterious signals in 2007, and their unpredictable nature makes information technology difficult to gather data. Astronomers are still watching, and the 64-meter Parkes Observatory in Australia reports information technology has observed the most powerful FRB notwithstanding.

The starting time recorded fast radio burst appeared in data from 2001, but it was non analyzed and reported until 2007. Since so, scientists have observed 33 more FRBs, but that is probably just scratching the surface. When astronomers telephone call something "fast," they are non kidding around. A fast radio burst lasts just a few milliseconds, so you'll miss it entirely if your musical instrument isn't pointed in the right management. But a single FRB has ever repeated (FRB 121102 in November 2022), so there'south usually no warning

Given the transient nature of fast radio bursts, radio telescopes around the world keep an eye out for them. The team at the Parkes Observatory managed to discover three separate FRBs in quick succession before this month. There was one on March 1st, another on March ninth, and the final of the trio on March 11th. The middle FRB is the nigh interesting considering it was by far the brightest ever recorded.

The March 9th FRB was about 4.five times brighter than the previous record-holder, with a point-to-racket ratio of 411. It's known equally FRB 180309, which isn't a peculiarly snappy name. While there were iii detections in just a few days, they were not related like FRB 121102.

The only repeating FRB ever discovered.

No one is quite sure what causes fast radio bursts, but it must be a powerful issue. These phenomena can outshine millions of stars for a split second. Scientists accept determined that the source of FRBs is most probable localized to a few hundred kilometers of space, just that's as far equally nosotros've gotten.

Possible sources for FRBs include colliding black holes or neutron stars and signals from an alien civilization that we cannot yet decipher. The latter is definitely an outside hazard, just annihilation is possible until we gather more information. More than super-brilliant FRBs similar FRB 180309 could help scientists collect the necessary data to form a theory. The truthful mechanism could also exist something we've never fathomed — and might not understand for many years to come.