One Explanation is Aliens. The other one, exploding black holes. The other one… exploding stars, exotic pulsars, magnetars… or maybe we just really don’t know.

A mysterious signal from deep space has been picked up by astronomers operating a brand-new $15 million telescope in Canada, marking one of only two dozen fast radio bursts ever detected.

The signal, commonly referred to as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB) lasted only a few milliseconds.

Astronomers say that this signal is unquestionably unique. The reason? The newly intercepted signal is the first radio emission intercepted from deep space, having a frequency below 700 MHz – the lowest frequency FRB ever recorded.

This led to the conclusion that whatever produced the signal –dubbed FRB 180725A—is very, very powerful.

Fast Radio Bursts aren’t really that common. In fact, the first such signal was spotted in 2007, and in eleven years, only two dozen similar events have been intercepted by experts.

Astronomers aren’t really sure what causes them. Some possible explanations include exploding black holes. However, some experts argue that advanced alien civilization could also be responsible for such signals.

Not long ago, we wrote about a study done by scientists at Harvard Universtiy who say that fast radio bursts, aka FRBs, might be leakage from planet-sized Alien transmitters powering interstellar probes in distant galaxies. “Fast radio bursts are exceedingly bright given their short duration and origin at great distances, and we haven’t identified a possible natural source with any confidence,” said theorist Avi Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking.”

The brand-new FRB was intercepted by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope, in operation less than a year.

The Chime telescope is unique. It was built to be able to spot signals sent out when our universe was between 6 billion and 11 billion years old.

Speaking to Mail Online, Christopher Conselice, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Nottingham said that the newly intercepted FRB could help pave the way for a greater understanding of what causes FRBs.

“We don’t know their origin, they could be caused by a number of things,” he said.

“The fact the lower frequency FRB has been detected provides hope that we can understand more about where they come from and what causes them.”

“They could be caused by exploding stars, supernova, exotic stars like pulsars, magnetars, neutron stars or massive black holes at the center of distant galaxies. It could even be some other physical mechanism that we don’t yet understand.”

Featured Image Credit: M. Weiss/CfA