Mysterious Radio Signal Traced to a Magnetar

Fast Radio Bursts were first discovered in 2007. Because of how brief they are, they can be difficult to detect.

via SyFy

A breakthrough was made a few years ago when some were found to repeat, meaning follow-up observations could be made. That was also a big clue to their origin; something that explodes catastrophically and destroys itself can’t repeat, so it’s not some weird kind of supernova. Another important finding was one that was traced to a spiral galaxy 500 million light years away. Getting a distance is crucial, because that can tell you the total energy emitted by the event. That narrows down suspects. Even better, that one was a repeater with a 16-day cycle to its bursts.

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