Mysterious radio signal from space? Astronomers aren’t sure of origins

Brett Molina | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Mystery radio waves from space are puzzling astronomers Short bursts of radio waves coming from beyond the Milky Way Galaxy leave astronomers with little answers.

A mysterious radio signal has been spotted by a telescope in Canada, and it's one of the lowest in frequency to date.

Details of the signal were posted to The Astronomer's Telegram, a website where accredited astronomers can post observations.

An observation posted last week by Patrick Boyle from Canada's McGill University finds a radio telescope called the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) discovered a fast radio burst, which are short bursts of radio waves coming from beyond the Milky Way Galaxy.

The FRB was detected at frequencies as low as 580 megahertz, the lowest frequency detection to date.

Science Alert reports the detection has not been independently verified, noting the case of Australian researchers who discovered a radio signal in 1998 only to find out 17 years later it was from a microwave.

Meanwhile, another astronomer submitted an observation to the Telegram claiming he had discovered a very bright star. It was actually Mars.

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Fast radio bursts were first discovered in 2007, but their origins are still unknown. Earlier this year, astronomers claimed they were close to determining the sources of these bursts. However, they could not rule out the possibility is a high-powered signal from an advanced alien civilization.

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