It was thought that this could be a signal from an extraterrestrial civilization, but scientists from MIT found that its source was the magnetosphere of a rotating neutron star, known as a magnetar.
These stars, the superdense remnants of exploding suns, are surrounded by powerful magnetic fields billions of times stronger than Earth’s.
The radio burst, which lasted only 2 ms, appeared due to the restructuring of energy in the magnetosphere, allowing the signal to reach Earth.
The researchers were able to pinpoint the origin of the signal; this was a small region of about 10,000 km in diameter, comparable to the distance between Edinburgh and Cape Town.
This discovery marks the first time that the source of FRBs has been determined so precisely and sheds light on their nature.
Source: Ferra
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