spacetoday.net: Astronomers discover mysterious extragalactic radio bursts

Astronomers discover mysterious extragalactic radio bursts

Posted: Fri, Jul 5, 2013, 1:28 PM ET (1728 GMT)
Astronomers have detected several short bursts of radio waves they believe are coming from as-yet unknown sources from outside our galaxy. In a paper published in the journal Science this week, astronomers reported the discovery of four such bursts, lasting for several milliseconds each, in observations by the Parkes radio telescope in Australia. Astronomers have not identified specific sources of the bursts but conclude they originate from outside the Milky Way galaxy at distances of up to several billion light-years. The busts, which may take place as frequently as every ten seconds over the whole sky, could be linked to magnetic neutron stars known as magnetars as they collapse into black holes.