Bizarre Energy Blast In The Universe Deepens Mystery Of Strange ‘Alien Signals’

An unexplained energy burst in a remote corner of the universe has deepened the mystery around bizarre alien radio signals that astronomers have still not been able to identify.

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are a puzzling phenomenon that flares up, and in the process release huge radio wave bursts for a split second before becoming quiet again. However, a group of researchers listening out for gamma rays has recorded an energy bang from the same point as one of these enigmatic objects, which according to the team could enable them to narrow down the origin of the difficult-to-study FRBs because of their short life.

Incidentally, FRBs have been also explained as signals from extraterrestrial intelligence, something that remains a mystery just like the bursts themselves. A team of astronomers from Pennsylvania State University (PSU) has found a strong release of radiation after a radio burst with the help of NASA's Swift telescope, a spacecraft that orbits our planet and measures gamma ray bursts. According to the researching team, this is the first instance of radiation accompanying signal to an FRB, which indicates that the source can be narrowed down in the future.

"Before this discovery FRBs were not seen to show emission in any other part of the [electromagnetic] spectrum besides radio, so this is the first ever detection of a non-radio counterpart to an FRB," said James DeLaunay, first author of the paper, as noted by Mail Online. "Detecting a non-radio counterpart of any kind greatly helps us narrow down what the possible source of FRBs could be."

Previously, researchers thought that FRBs can emit gamma-rays in one of two ways, i.e., either a magnetar was releasing enormous magnetic flares or two neutron stars were colliding together to form a black hole.

The new research has added two more possibilities, supernovae and supermassive black holes. However, none of the models can actually explain the source, and the phenomenon remains a mystery.

"I am really burning to know what are the sources behind these fast radio bursts, and how do they contrive to generate them?" added astrophysicist Derek Fox from the PSU researching team.