An Australian-based PhD student has cracked an international mystery that had some of the best minds in astrophysics stumped. Working at the Parkes radio telescope in NSW, Emily Petroff has identified the source of mysterious radio bursts of terrestrial origin that mimic signals from outside our own galaxy.

The strange radio signals being detected on Earth, known as "perytons", are very similar in frequency and duration to deep space signals that some astronomers thought could be caused by neutron stars becoming black holes. However, Ms Petroff and her colleagues identified a far more mundane source for perytons – microwave ovens used by astronomers to heat up their pot noodles.

Emily Petroff, at the Parkes radio telescope, has identified the source of mysterious radio bursts – the early opening of microwave ovens.

Ms Petroff, a doctoral student at Swinburne University of Technology, identified the source of three perytons detected at Parkes radio telescope in January. This type of radio signal, 25 of which have been observed