Since they were first
detected 10 years ago, rare and brief bursts of cosmic radio waves, known as
fast radio bursts, have remained one of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics.
And the latest fast radio
burst, called FRB 150215, might be the most perplexing one yet.
Despite spending the last
two years using telescopes to find anything associated with it, researchers
have admitted they're still clueless about where this one came from.
Researchers from the
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy first detected FRB 150215 in 2015,
and have been working since to understand its source.
Speaking to Gizmodo, Emily
Petroff, who is leading the study, said: 'We spent a lot of time with a lot of
telescopes to find anything associated with it.
'We got new wavelength
windows we've never gotten before.
'We're still trying to
figure out where this one came from.'
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs,
are radio emissions that appear temporarily and randomly, making them not only
hard to find, but also hard to study.
The mystery stems from the
fact it is not known what could produce such a short and sharp burst.
This has led some to
speculate they could be anything from stars colliding to artificially created
messages.
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| FRB 150215 can be viewed through several telescopes, but has not left any detectable signal or trace of light |
So far, 22 FRBs have been
detected, but astronomers believe that there could be up to 2,000 in the
Universe every day.
While astronomers can usually
use telescopes to pinpoint the likely source of the burst, FRB 150215 has left
the Dutch team baffled.
It can be viewed through
several telescopes, but has not left any detectable signal or trace of light.
In their paper, published in
arXiv, the researchers said: 'The burst was followed up with 11 telescopes to
search for radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray, and neutrino emission.
'Neither transient nor
variable emission was found to be associated with the burst, and no repeat
pulses have been observed in 17.25 hours of observing.'
Adding to the mystery is the
fact that FRB 150215 shouldn't have been detectable from Earth given the direction
in space it is coming from.
It had to pass through an
extremely dense region of the Milky Way to reach us.
The galaxy's magnetic field
should have changed the way the light from the radio burst travelled – but it
didn't.
Speaking to Gizmodo, Ms Petroff
said: 'It probably travelled through some kind of hole in the Milky Way that
makes it easy to find compared to normal searches in the galaxy.'
While some have questioned
whether FRBs are signs that aliens are trying to contact us.