Science!

Scientists have found an unusual and repetitive signal coming from a distant galaxy.

The blast of radio energy is flashing, in a pattern that has been likened to a heartbeat.

Scientists say it is a fast radio burst, or the still-mysterious and powerful blasts of energy that come from deep in space, and which scientists still do not understand. But it is strange among those blasts: it is nowhere near as fast, lasting for up to three seconds rather than the milliseconds of usual FRBs.


The signal is flashing in a “periodic” pattern of a kind that is rarely found in the universe. The bursts of energy repeat every 0.2 seconds.

Daniele Michilli, a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, said: “There are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals.

“Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars, which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse.

“And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids.”

Called FRB 20191221A, the signal is currently the longest-lasting FRB, with the clearest periodic pattern, detected to date……

https://www.independent.co.uk/space/earth-heartbeat-galaxy-energy-frbs-b2122804.html