Astronomers had always been hoping that extraterrestrial civilizations would try to communicate with us from distant planets using radio signals. While the theory still stands, there’s one peculiar and powerful such signal that ignited the imagination and interest of astronomers. Such bursts of energy are also known as FRBs (fast radio bursts). Studying such a phenomenon in detail is indeed difficult, as it lasts for a very brief period of time. However, scientists managed to find some important answers.
FRB 121102 enters the spotlight
FRB 121102 is the radio signal in question, and it’s also known as the first fast radio burst that repeats itself, according to Salon.com. Over only a few months of 2019, astronomers detected over 1,600 independent radio bursts coming from the same source.
Bing Zhang, an astrophysicist from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, declared as quoted by Salon.com:
This was the first time that one FRB source was studied in such great detail,
The large burst set helped our team hone in like never before on the characteristic energy and energy distribution of FRBs, which sheds new light on the engine that powers these mysterious phenomena.
We’re eagerly looking forward to finding out what other exciting things astronomers have in store for us regarding fast radio bursts. It’s obvious that such phenomenons allow us to speculate a lot, and those who are passionate about stories regarding aliens are free to share their assumptions with the world. However, until now, there’s no compelling evidence for the existence of alien life.
Hopefully, astronomers will find some forms of life on Mars someday, but we can’t expect it to be more than in a primitive state.
The new study regarding the FRB 121102 was published in Nature.
