FRBs or Fast Radio Bursts have been traced for a second time coming from a spiral galaxy similar to ours. Usually radio bursts emit once but these are being recorded as a repeating signal.
The source of the new FRB is being called 180916.J0158+65 and was observed by a global effort of eight ground-based telescopes. They have pinpointed the location to a galaxy half a billion light-years from Earth. CNN says that while that may sound distant, it’s actually seven times closer than the other repeating radio signals “and more than 10 times closer than non-repeating FRBs that have been traced. “
FRBs are allowing us to learn more about the host galaxy and are telling us more about the types of environment in which these originate from. Since this latest recorded transmission is significantly closer to us than previous ones, we are sure to learn even more about where it’s coming from.
The more radio bursts that can be traced the further we expand out knowledge. Hopefully someday we will know much more about space and be able to document it. Even the sea was once an enigma, and look how far we’ve come by studying that.
Read the full article at CNN, where they speak with several different astronomers about what the signal could mean.