Astronomers spot record-breaking radio signal that took 8 billion years to reach Earth: 'Mind-blowing'

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Exactly what causes fast radio bursts has become one of astronomy's great mysteries.

Eight billion years ago, something happened in a distant galaxy that sent an incredibly powerful blast of radio waves hurtling through the universe.It finally arrived at Earth on June 10 last year and -- though it lasted less than a thousandth of a second -- a radio telescope in Australia managed to pick up the signal.This flash from the cosmos was a fast radio burst , a little-understood phenomenon first discovered in 2007.

Shannon emphasized that this was just the team's 'best hunch.'FRBs have been detected coming from unexpected places, including from within our own Milky Way galaxy, so 'the jury's still out' on what causes them, he said.Aside from trying to uncover the secrets of FRBs, scientists hope to use them as a tool to shed light on another of the universe's mysteries.

 

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