Astronomers at the Green Bank Telescope have detected 15 new fast radio burst signals, repeating over a matter of hours
Credit: Green Bank Observatory Science Center

Fast Radio Bursts (FRB) have puzzled astronomers ever since they were first detected about 10 years ago. Coming in from all corners of space, these strong but extremely short-lived signals can’t be explained by any known celestial object, and now the mystery has deepened even further. Normally, FRBs fire off once and aren’t heard from again, but one outlier has been particularly chatty over the years. That repeating FRB has kicked into hyperdrive this week, pulsing an unprecedented 15 times in the space of a few hours.

There are plenty of theories about what FRBs could be. The signals are similar to those given off by pulsars and magnetars – rapidly-rotating neutron stars surrounded by powerful magnetic fields – but the problem there is that these signals pulse repeatedly, while the majority of FRBs are a one-and-done deal. Of course, as […]

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