Astronomers detect radio "heartbeat" billions of light years from Earth
Astronomers at MIT and universities in Canada and the United States have detected a strange and persistent radio signal from a distant galaxy that seems to flicker with surprising regularity. The signal is classified as a rapid radio burst, or FRB — a very powerful burst of radio waves of unknown astrophysical origin, which usually lasts a few milliseconds at most. However, this new signal lasted up to three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than the FRB average. Within this window, the team detected bursts of radio waves that repeated every 0.2 seconds in a clear periodic pattern, similar to a heartbeat. The researchers have labeled the signal FRB 20191221A, and it is currently the most durable FRB, with the clearest periodic pattern, detected to date. The source of the signal lies in a distant galaxy, a few billion light years from Earth. Exactly what the source is remains a mystery, although astronomers suspect the signal could be from a radio pulsar or a magnetar, both types of