An international team of astronomers has discovered the first persistently active repeating Fast Radio Burst (FRB) reportedly coming from a distant galaxy using China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). As per the reports, the mysterious signal is coming from a galaxy believed to be nearly 3 billion light-years away.

The FRB was first detected in 2019 and has been named FRB190520B. Meanwhile, this discovery of repeating FRBs has made astronomers curious as to what could be producing these powerful outbursts. This mysterious finding has been published in the scientific journal Nature and it notes that the source of FRB 20190520B is “co-located with a compact, persistent radio source and associated with a dwarf host galaxy of high specific-star-formation.” See ‘Sun As Never Before’! NASA Plans To Invest $2 Million for New Solar Sail Project.

As the name suggests, Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are very fast bursts of radiation (lasting only milliseconds in duration) that flare brightly in radio wavelengths. Meanwhile, astronomers suspect that these bursts may be unleashed by certain extreme objects.

Earlier, astronomers had discovered an FRB in 2016 that was the first FRB whose location was pinpointed. "The big surprise for me was realizing that the new FRB seems to be such a perfect 'twin' to an earlier discovery," Casey Law, an astronomer at Caltech and a co-author who led the VLA program, told Space.com. 'Galactic UFOs' Hovering in Space? Hubble Space Telescope Captures Star-Forming Spirals That Look Like Alien Objects.

"The abundance of models reflects our lack of understanding of FRBs. Our work favors active repeaters being born out of an extreme explosive event such as a supernova. These active repeaters are also young, as they have to be seen not long after the birthing event," Astrophysicist Di Li told Reuters.

FRBs are mysterious radio flashes lasting milliseconds from deep space, but little is known about their origin although some scientists suggest that they could be evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 09, 2022 09:28 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).