Persistent radio signals from a galaxy billions of light-years away were detected by astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and universities throughout both the United States and Canada.
The waves occur in a regular pattern, similar to that of a heartbeat.
The signal is categorized as a fast radio burst, or FRB, which is a large occurrence of radio waves, the origin of which is unknown. These typically only last a few milliseconds, according to MIT News.
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The recently detected signal lasted nearly three seconds, making it a peculiar discovery, as it is 1,000 times longer than the average FRB.
When astronomers analyzed the waves within the three seconds, they found that there was an evident pattern in which the waves repeated every 0.2 seconds.
The captured signal has been named “FRB 20191221A” by researchers. It is both the clearest and longest FRB ever discovered.
According to Daniele Michilli, a postdoctoral scholar at MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, “there are not many things in the universe that emit strictly periodic signals.”
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“Examples that we know of in our own galaxy are radio pulsars and magnetars,” Michilli continued, “which rotate and produce a beamed emission similar to a lighthouse. And we think this new signal could be a magnetar or pulsar on steroids.”
