The paper is theoretical it doesn’t propose any evidence for the “aliens” hypothesis, it just argues that it’d be compatible with the recorded data so far. While grounded speculation among astrophysicists suggests that FRBs are caused by neutron stars, stars merging, or black holes, it’s a different theory that has caught hold of the public imagination: Maybe they’re caused by intelligent alien life.Ī study by Avi Loeb and Manasvi Lingam of Harvard University, published in 2017, argued that the patterns could plausibly result from extraterrestrials’ transmitters. Are aliens causing fast radio bursts? Probably not. They end their paper calling for more research. But aliens are not on their list of possibilities. In short, the authors don’t know what’s causing FRBs. They also note that periodicity could arise from the rotation of a star, but that’s a tricky hypothesis: Previously observed sources have had way shorter periodicities (a few hours, not a couple of weeks) and way less strength (we’re talking nine orders of magnitude less) than FRBs have. The authors say FRBs could be generated if giant radio pulses from an energetic neutron star are eclipsed by a companion object. “Given the source’s location in the outskirts of a massive spiral galaxy,” the paper says, “a supermassive black hole companion seems unlikely, although lower-mass black holes are viable.” ![]() Celestial bodies are known to orbit on regular timescales, so a pair of objects - like a star and a black hole - could account for the 16-day pattern. The 16-day “periodicity” cannot be occurring “by chance coincidence,” the scientists write, and it’s “an important clue to the nature of the object.” It’s clear that the FRB can’t be originating from a cataclysmic event, like a star going supernova, since that’s a one-time affair.īut beyond that, the scientists really aren’t sure. There are a couple of things we know for sure. That’s the central question of a new paper authored by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment in collaboration with the Fast Radio Burst Project (CHIME/FRB). So why is a radio signal repeating every 16 days like clockwork, and what can that teach us about its origins? The source sends out one or two bursts of radio waves every hour, over four days. The peculiar signal is coming from a massive spiral galaxy 500 million light-years away. This is the first time scientists have detected such a pattern in an FRB source. But by observing the sky from September 2018 through October 2019, the researchers in Canada found 28 bursts - including one that repeats with a very regular pattern indeed: It appears every 16.35 days, to be exact. ![]() A few previously detected FRBs had been shown to repeat sporadically, without any regular pattern. Now, researchers based in Canada, where a radio telescope exceptionally well equipped to detect FRBs began operating in 2018, have added a new piece to the puzzle. With the origin of these signals still unknown, some scientists - notably the chair of the Harvard astronomy department, Avi Loeb - speculate aliens could be sending them. Our radio telescopes, which pick up radio waves rather than visible light, first detected them in 2007 since then, we’ve recorded a few dozen more, but not enough to be able to put together a compelling theory of what causes them. ![]() ![]() Until recently, that’s about all scientists could tell you about fast radio bursts, or FRBs. These sudden pulses of radio waves come from far outside our galaxy. Fast radio bursts are one of astronomy’s tantalizing unsolved mysteries.
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