Peculiar radio bursts from deep space
Since 2007, astronomers have detected hundreds of powerful, millisecond-long pulses known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). Until very recently, all of these pulses originated from outside our galaxy, making it exceptionally difficult for astronomers to pinpoint a source. Various natural phenomena were ascribed, along with the inevitable “it’s aliens” explanation. The stunning recent detection of an FRB inside our Milky Way galaxy suggests magnetars—highly magnetic neutron stars—are responsible for these signals, or at least some of them.
