Mystery radio bursts picked up in real time

Astronomers have been picking up strange unexplained radio bursts from the depths of space.

The mysterious bursts, which last only a fraction of a second but give out more energy than the sun does in a million years, were previously picked up only in historical data.

Now however scientists at Swinburne University in Melbourne have been able to catch one of these bursts, known as 'blitzers', in the act using the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales.Other astronomers attempted to pick up an afterglow from the event but were unable to detect any signs of one.


It isn't clear exactly what might be causing the bursts but scientists have speculated that it would have to be some kind of cataclysmic event occuring up to 5.5 billion light years away.

"Nobody knows what to make of it," said astronomer Keith Bannister of CSIRO, Australia's national science agency. "All the ideas are very exotic so ruling them out is all you can do at the moment."

It is hoped that the data retrieved from this latest observation will help to piece together the true source of these unexplained bursts and solve this long running cosmic mystery once and for all.

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