Mysterious signal sent from an unknown source in deep space and picked up by a new £12 million telescope in Canada
Mysterious signal sent from an unknown source in deep space and picked up by a new £12 million telescope in Canada is one of ‘only two dozen’ radio bursts ever detected
A brief burst of radio sent from an unknown source across the universe has been picked up by the state-of-the-art CHIME telescope in Canada.
The signal, known as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), lasted only a matter of milliseconds.
Researchers claim the signal is the first radio emission received from across the universe with a frequency below 700 MHz – the lowest frequency FRB ever recorded.
As a result, scientists believe that whatever produced the signal, which has been branded ‘FRB 180725A’, is likely to be extremely powerful.
FRBs are extremely uncommon, with the abrupt radio emissions first discovered in 2007 and only two dozen examples recorded since.
Experts are still investigating what causes FRBs, with possible explanations including exploding black holes and advanced extra-terrestrial civilisations.
The radio emission was first detected by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) telescope, which has been in operation for less than a year.
The FRB was detected by CHIME’s expansive, four 100-meter-long (328ft) U-shaped cylinders on July 25 2018.
CHIME is designed to be able to record signals sent when the universe was between 6 billion and 11 billion years old.