Posted in: 19/07/2022 – 10:32
Once once more, US scientists have detected an incoming radio signal that has baffled them, especially because of its alternating rhythm that resembles a heartbeat, according to a study published July 13 in the journal Nature.
This is not the first radio signal from space that scientists have picked up, but it has something special regarding it. Dubbed FRB 20191221A, the signal lasted for three seconds, 1,000 times longer than a typical radio signal. During those seconds, intense radiation peaks occurred every 0.2 seconds, making it look like a heartbeat.
The signal “was not very long and lasted regarding three seconds but there were remarkably precise periodic peaks emitted every millisecond like a heartbeat,” said Danielle Mitchell, an astrophysicist at the US Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
All in all, these fast signals only last for a few milliseconds and go off at once which makes FRB 20191221A so special.
“There aren’t many things in the universe that emit precisely periodic signals,” Micheli explained. Currently, researchers are leaning toward the hypothesis that it was emitted by a neutron star in another galaxy.
