Aliens, black hole, and fast radio bursts? Space is filled with many wonders and unanswered questions. Recently scientists have been working towards the answer of what causes fast radio bursts, and with the discovery of FRB 150418 they thought they were getting close. Now a year removed from that discovery, it seems scientists are back to square one.
Fast Radio Bursts
Fast radio bursts or FRB, are high-energy radio flashes that occur outside of the Milky Way. They occur randomly and only in a short bursts, so scientists never know when and where they will find them. Most FRBs are discovered after they occur while scientists are reviewing radio telescope archives. Once discovered an FRB is named after its date of discovery. There are many things scientists still don’t know about FRBs. The biggest question being what causes them. There’s not much evidence to go off so at this point aliens may be a valid guess.
FRB 150418 and Black Hole
On April 18, 2015, the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia picked-up on an FRB as it was occurring. For the first time, scientists were able to detect an FRB as it was happening, and locate its source. FRB 150418’s origin was pinpointed within a galaxy 6 billion light-years away. Scientists were able to detect FRB 150418 for 6 days before it faded away. The length in which this occurrence was tracked doesn’t match up to past FRBs which only lasted milliseconds. For this reason, some believe the emissions from FRB 150418, were actually from a supermassive black hole instead.
Aliens, Black Holes, or Another Phenomenon
What could have caused the radio emission known as FRB 150418? Some will argue aliens, while others will hold on to the black hole theory presented by scientist. Whatever it may be it could be a long time before we find what is causing FRBs.
