Radio waves from space flow through our atmosphere every day, but the fast, steady and repeated bursts that were detected in 2019 and recently released to the public are unusual and mysterious.
Kiyoshi Masui, assistant professor of physics at MIT, said on Greater Boston the mysterious radio bursts are like camera flashes coming from galaxies that are lightyears away, but the exact source is unknown.
Most radio bursts only last for milliseconds and are sporadic, but this special burst lasted more than three seconds long and each burst was spaced by about a quarter second, according to Masui.
Monica Young, news editor at Sky & Telescope, said we have only known about these radio waves for about 15 years. "This is all accelerating very quickly in terms of what we're learning about these."
Young said the mysterious bursts are likely coming from neutron stars, which are crushed stellar cores of a dead star with a strong magnetic field.
WATCH: Why are scientists so excited about steady radio bursts from space?
