ALL POSSIBILITIES should be considered, including an artificial origin, says Abraham Loeb, chair, department of astronomy at Harvard University, US, referring to the periodic bursts of radio waves emanating from a galaxy 500 million light years from Earth. First noticed in September 2018 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (chime), a radio telescope at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory in British Columbia, Canada, the waves have created ripples across the globe for one reason—they arrive in a pattern. This gave birth to theories that they could be from an alien civilisation.
Fast radio bursts (FRBS) are not a new concept. The first one was noticed in 2007 and scientists have documented 110 FRBS so far. A vast majority of FRBS are isolated, with just 10 so far repeating themselves.
This story is from the March 01, 2020 edition of Down To Earth.
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This story is from the March 01, 2020 edition of Down To Earth.
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