Fast Radio Bursts

Astronomers have detected a really bizarre radio signal from space that repeats every hour, cycling through three different states. While they have some ideas about its origin it can’t be explained by our current understanding of physics.

Astronomers have picked up a radio signal from eight billion years ago, meaning it’s traveled across the observable universe to get here. Thanks to its extensive experience in the cosmos, the signal can actually help us track down “missing” matter.

Cosmic radio signals are beaming to Earth every day – and astronomers are stumped as to their origin. Now a new study finds evidence that these signals, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), could be caused by “starquakes.”

Astronomers have detected a radio signal that blares for several minutes at a time, every 21 minutes, and has been doing so for at least 35 years. This bizarre signal doesn’t fit any known object without some major revisions to current physics.

Astronomers have discovered a strange neutron star that challenges our understanding of them – but may help unlock the mystery of fast radio bursts. The object spins far slower than any known neutron star, and gives off seven types of radio pulses.

A new signal deepens the mystery of fast radio bursts with a few oddities – it hails from an unexpected region of space, and its pulses are about a million times shorter than most, which could indicate many others like it are going undetected.

Astronomers have discovered a bizarre radio signal in our galaxy that can’t be explained by any known object. When active the source gives off radio bursts lasting a minute, every 20 minutes, which should be impossible based on what we know about it.

A huge new dataset could soon help unlock the mystery of fast radio bursts (FRBs). Within a few weeks, over 1,600 new signals were detected coming from one of the most well-studied sources, essentially ruling out a leading hypothesis on their origin.

We might be one step closer to an answer for the intriguing cosmic mystery of fast radio bursts. By examining multiple “radio colors” simultaneously in a batch of repeating signals, astronomers have ruled out a leading model for their origin.

The mystery of fast radio bursts may be closer to being solved. Astronomers studying a repeating signal from a nearby galaxy have detected radiation at the lowest frequency of any FRB found so far, providing new potential hints about their origin.

Space is an incredibly weird place. From extreme exoplanets to stars with strange fates, clues to an old mystery and the beginnings of a brand new one, here are 10 of the weirdest astronomical discoveries that blew our minds this year.

With the mystery of fast radio bursts looking increasingly solved, astronomers need a new cosmic conundrum to ponder. And right on cue, a brand new noodle-scratcher has emerged from the depths of space – meet “odd radio circles,” or ORCs.