‘Mysterious’ Radio Signals from Space in Every 2 Weeks

In the past, space scientists have received radio signals from outer space, but for the first time, the researchers have observed repetition of signals and have noticed a pattern that involved a series of bursts coming from a single source, which is located half a billion light-years from Earth. 

Fast radio bursts in scientific term FRBs are of millisecond duration bursts of radio waves in the space. The individual radio bursts emit once and do not repeat. But the repeating fast radio bursts are known for sending short, energetic radio waves multiple times. And when they usually repeat, it does so in sporadic or in a cluster, according to earlier observations. 

Researchers, who are associated with Fast Radio Burst Project and the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment collaboration, have detected a pattern in bursts occurring every 16.35 days between September 16, 2018, and October 30, 2019. Over the course of four days, it has been observed that the signal would release a burst or two every hour. Then, it goes silent for another 12 days.

The findings have been included in a paper on arXiv, which means the paper has been moderated but not fully reviewed by peers. The authors of the research paper are part of the collaboration between CHIME and FRB, which has published a multitude of fast radio burst studies in the recent years. 

Last year, the collaboration also found the sources of eight new repeating fast radio bursts, including their signals. The repeating signal was traced to a massive spiral galaxy, which is located about 500 million light-years away.

Researchers are now hoping that by tracing the origin of the mysterious bursts, they can also determine and find out what caused them. So far, the researchers have been able to trace single and repeating fast radio bursts back to very different sources, which actually deepens the mystery.

The evidence of the pattern in the signal also adds to the question of what could have caused these bursts to emit the way that they do. 

According to researchers, “The discovery of a 16.35-day periodicity in a repeating FRB source is an important clue to the nature of this object.”

In the paper, the researchers cite certain possible causes, such as the orbital motion of a star or an object that acts as a companion in the outskirts of the galaxy.  

But understanding fast radio bursts is very much important as it can also help astronomers learn more about the universe itself. The more bursts the scientists can trace, the better they can be able to use the signals to find out how the matter is distributed across the universe. The researchers are of the view that the future observations could help them in determining if other repeating fast radio bursts also has a pattern.