Blurs

For a few milliseconds, somewhere in the distant universe, something releases an extraordinary burst of radio energy. Then it disappears. There may be no visible explosion. No obvious warning. No gradual build-up. Just a brief pulse of radio waves travelling across intergalactic space before arriving at Earth. Astronomers call these phenomena Fast Radio Bursts, or FRBs. They are among the most mysterious signals ever detected from the cosmos. And although scientists increasingly suspect that extreme objects such as magnetars are responsible for at least some of them, the complete picture remains unresolved. So what exactly are these strange signals? And could any of them really be evidence of an extraterrestrial civilisation? A Flash Lasting Milliseconds The first recognised FRB was detected in 2007. It appeared in archived data from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. The signal lasted only milliseconds, yet it appeared to have travelled an enormous distance. That was the beginni...