An unidentified tuner expelling from cryptic space has been recorded by a novel radio telescope in British Columbia , but where the 20 - second - long transcription come from remains a enigma .

It impart to the confounding astronomical   conundrum that is flying Radio Bursts , orFRBs . These enigmatical blip of shiny powerful radiation change of location more than3 billion light - yearsacross deep space and last just a few milliseconds . Nobody knows why , where , or when they will move next , but they do   provide afew cluesabout the space environs they pass through on their way to Earth much in the same way sonar allows us to read the seafloor .

observe on July 25 by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment ( CHIME ) telescope , it ’s the first - ever FRB recorded at frequencies below 700 Mc ,   according to theAstronomer ’s Telegram , and has since been named FRB 180725A.

CHIME has been operate for less than a year in an effort to map hydrogen – the most abundant constituent in the universe – throughout blank space . In the same way , this “ refreshing ” tuner telescope can pluck up radio emissions by skim 16,000 dissimilar frequencies gibe to 130 billion bit of data per second gear . Once detected , these FBR case are transmit automatically to a team of researchers for future analysis . The Astronomer ’s Telegram tell other FRBs have been found in the last week absolute frequency as low as 400 Mc , none of which are probable to be originating on Earth .

The external cosmic mystery dates back to more than a decade ago and has since been explain by everything from exploding black jam to highly - spellbind neutron asterisk to exotic life .

“ The joke is that the number of theory outnumbers the number of have intercourse bursts , ” say astrophysicist Emily Petroff , who is not involved with gong , in a previousstatement .

First discovered in 2007 , FBRs have intrigued andconfusedastronomers . Since their discovery , FRBs have beenconfirmedto hail from distance , and continue tomake headlinesabout the stories they narrate scientist aboutspace . Only one FRB has been found torepeat itselfmore than 150 times at high frequency