Astronomers just found the fastest known radio pulses from outside our galaxy hiding in 30 minutes' worth of radio telescope data. The findings, published Oct. 19 in the journal Nature Astronomy, could help researchers uncover where these mysterious blips come from.
The first FRB was detected in 2007, and since then, hundreds more have been discovered. Astronomers aren't entirely sure what causes FRBs. There's evidence that at least some of the radio pulses come from magnetars, a type of dense neutron star with an extremely powerful magnetic field. Other researchers have proposed that FRBs might be the result of merging neutron stars, energetic supernovas, gamma-ray bursts or potentially even technosignatures from alien civilizations.
By analyzing 30 minutes of radio data from the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, Snelders and his co-authors discovered eight ultrafast FRBs originating from a source 3 billion light-years away. Each energetic pulse lasted just 10 millionths of a second or less — the fastest bursts ever detected by far.
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