Mysterious Radio Wave Signals From Deep Space Hit Earth

Astronomers have made a shocking discovery. They discovered a powerful burst of radio waves as they reached Earth. Part of their discovery is the radio waves are from eight billion years ago.

Radio waves can travel great distances. Without obstructions, they can travel thousands of miles. In space, they can travel exponentially farther. FRB 20220610A is one of the most distant radio signals ever recorded and one of the most energetic.

The origin of such radio waves continues to perplex the scientific community because they are so perplexing. We still don’t understand what or who sends these radio waves. FRB 20220610A isn’t the first.

The signals challenge the scientific community and their understanding of the universe because of their origins. They tend to originate from regions far beyond our galaxy and hint at events the human race is only beginning to understand. Decoding and understanding the existence and origin of these FRBs will take additional research and time.

What Are FRBs

FRBs (fast radio bursts) are short flashes of radio waves that last milliseconds. The phenomenon was discovered in 2007 and aroused curiosity worldwide because of the distance and intensity of the signals. This FRB energy was so powerful it compared to what our sun produces over 30 years but in the blink of an eye.

What causes FRBs? Some candidates are magnetars, rapidly rotating neutron stars, powerful magnetic fields, merging white dwarfs, collapsing neutron stars, and colliding galaxies.

What is certain is the sources are highly energetic. As radio waves travel through the galaxy, they may gather information about cosmic events, such as when they travel through an interstellar gas cloud. For those scientists mapping the universe, FRBs are of significant importance.

The First FRB And Differing FRBs

In 2001, an FRB exploded from the area outside the Milky Way known as the Small Magellanic Cloud. The satellite galaxy event wouldn’t be discovered until 2007. The Parkes Observatory in Australia had recorded the event in its archives.

Years later, in 2012, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico discovered the first repeating FRB. To scientists, this was important because it confirmed some of the sources of the FRBs survive the powerful explosions of radiation when FRBs are emitted.

Researchers at McGill University suggest we may be unable to log repeating FRBs completely because we haven’t studied the skies long enough. Repeating FRBs appeared to some scientists as different from their counterparts in ways.

According to one study, the repeating FRBs appear to last longer but are over a tighter range of radio-wave frequencies than the non-repeating FRBs. The implication would be two different types are from different sources.

Frequency of FRBs

Fast radio bursts appear like bright flashes of light and are in the band of the electromagnetic spectrum. Catching one is extremely lucky because it relies on when and where you point your radio dish. The bright light flashes shine brightly for a few milliseconds before they disappear.

The CHIME (Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment) made it easier to catch them, detecting over 500 FRBs in its first year of operation. Between the scientists at CHIME and researchers at MIT, they assembled the telescopes’ first catalog of FRBs in 2021.

With 535 detected by one telescope, it is believable that the number of FRBs sent out in the universe is far from understood.

Another Possibility

Another possibility about the origin of fast radio bursts comes from two scientists from Harvard.

FRB signals could be due to intensely powerful, more advanced radio transmitters outside our galaxy. Why would they (aliens) build such powerful radio transmitters?

Inside the radio signals is a yet-to-be-decoded message. We have sent messages to the stars ourselves. It would be foolish to dismiss the possibility that somewhere out there, far, far, away, is another intelligent species, and they are looking for the same thing as us. The answer to the question, are we alone?

Since the source of FRBs is only theoretical, based on our beginning understanding of the universe, it remains guesswork and hypotheticals. As we continue mapping out the universe, someday, FRBs may show us something we had not conceived of, as well as answer the question of our existence in the universe.

Or, is somebody just phoning home?