Fast Radio Bursts Being Spotted in Deep Space at Faster Rates

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief but incredibly intense flashes of radio waves that originate outside of our galaxy, and these milliseconds-long bursts of light are rather mysterious since we don’t know what makes them or where exactly they come from. Since they were discovered in 2007, scientists have observed around three dozen FRBs, but a new study has just significantly added to that total. Researchers in Australia have reported 20 FRBs, which they observed with the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope over the course of a year.

Among the FRBs they observed are both the closest and brightest examples detected to date. And the team was able to confirm that these bursts are coming from halfway across the universe.