A cluster of cosmic explosions has been traced to a mysterious repeating fast radio burst in space. They call this phenomenon FRB 121102 and found it using China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The telescope was able to detect 1,652 bursts over a duration of 47 days, happening between August 29 and October 29, 2019.
Being the largest event of fast radio burst, a study explaining the findings was published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Fast radio bursts are millisecond-long emissions of radio waves in space. Astronomers are able to trace the origin of bursts back to their home galaxies. However, scientists still do not know the actual causes of these flashes.
According to the study, short bursts can produce a year’s worth of our sun’s total energy output. An individual radio burst will emit once and will not repeat itself. On the flip side, repeating radio bursts are known to send out short, energetic radio waves multiple times. The FRB121102 phenomenon has been repeating fast radio bursts since 2016.
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