Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are sudden energy explosions that have the scientific community in a frenzy. Their origin is still unknown. It is more likely that they originate from ultraviolent cosmic occurrences, yet some experts even credit them to extraterrestrial civilizations. A significant discovery by the CHIME observatory, which stands for Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, was published in the journal Nature on January 9, 2019.
These are the mysterious radio bursts coming from space, which may not be natural
Situated in southern British Columbia, Canada, this radio telescope has an unusual construction consisting of four cylinder antennas that are 20 meters wide and 100 meters long. It was all by accident because the instrument was being tested, and it is still being tested. Over three weeks in the summer of 2018, CHIME identified thirteen energy emissions that were both intense and fleeting. It was another indication that rapid radio bursts, or FRBs for short, are a phenomenon that the astronomical community is always curious about.
Our discussion concerns unidentified bursts that occur in the radio electromagnetic spectrum and have a duration of a few milliseconds. The fact that CHIME was able to detect six repetitions of one of these super-ephemeral bursts is significant. Astronomers are extremely grateful for this fact, as it enables them to cast the net and observe the enigmatic object using various instruments. Until 2012, the only other known repetitive outburst was FRB 121102, which was discovered by the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico and has been observed 150 times.
This has allowed us to determine that the object originates in a small galaxy 3 billion light-years away from Earth, when life on Earth was merely a parade of dull single-celled algae. Although the energy that travels those distances to reach our planet is minuscule—less than what an ant needs to bend one of its legs—the FRBs release in a year the same amount of energy as the Sun. Ph.D. student David Narkevich reanalyzed data from the Parkes radio observatory in southeastern Australia six years prior, revealing the presence of the fast radio bursts to astronomers for the first time in September 2007.
The massive explosion that Narkevich discovered had only lasted five milliseconds and originated from a point 1.5 billion light-years away from Earth. Moreover, it is important to highlight that the energy discharged into space in that brief moment was equal to the energy produced in two trillion years by the two nuclear power facilities at Ascó, Tarragona. Although this phenomenon was previously observed in 2001, astronomers were unable to accept that such a spectacular flash had a cosmic origin and instead ascribed it to some form of terrestrial interference.
According to Australian astronomer Matthew Bailes, “This one was so bright that it overwhelmed the instruments, yet the type of activity we seek at those distances is faint.” Experts are speculating that we may be dealing with a process involving extremely dense, tiny objects, like black holes or neutron stars, but no one is certain. Astronomer Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute once compared FRB 121102 to a little dog’s loud bark. In other words, it originates from the interior of a dwarf galaxy, which is tens of times smaller than the Milky Way, has a high star formation rate, and is of low metallicity, meaning it lacks all but hydrogen and helium. These hints should help us unravel the enigma, much like in the detective game Clue.
Could these radio bursts mean extraterrestrial civilizations?
Those who suggest that they are indicators of alien civilizations have one of the most ambitious theories. But why would they use such ferocious screams to signal their arrival? Shostak remarked that “It is like sinking the Titanic with a flare gun powerful enough to be seen from Mars.” Astronomers Avi Loeb and Manasvi Lingam of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics speculate that FRBs may represent leaks from alien objects the size of planets. These purported emitters would be made to move ships utilizing the solar navigation principle, not for communication.
They would have large, reflective sails and would be hit by radio wave beams that would move them forward, similarly to how the wind moves our ships. Over the past decade, approximately sixty FRBs have been detected scattered across the sky, a common phenomenon in the universe. Some astronomers believe these bursts are produced when a celestial object collapses, similar to supernovae, marking the end of a star’s life. These bursts come from stars with greater mass than a galaxy, turning into black holes that rotate at high speed, lasting only ten to twenty seconds.
