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First Repeating Fast Radio Burst

Artist’s impression of a powerful X-ray burst erupting from a magnetar—a known source of fast radio bursts.
Artist’s impression of a powerful X-ray burst erupting from a magnetar—a known source of fast radio bursts. Image: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA

Scientists first detected fast radio bursts (FRBs) in 2007, but two major factors prevented them from fully understanding these enigmatic, millisecond-long pulses. The first is that all of them (until recently) originated in galaxies far, far away. The second is that FRBs were fleeting, one-off events. That changed in 2016, when scientists working at the Arecibo Observatory spotted the first repeating FRB. Since that time, we have detected other repeaters and even FRBs originating from our own galaxy. Recent evidence suggests these pulses are coming from highly magnetic neutron stars known as magnetars.

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