Radio signals from deep space repeated every 16 days

(Gray News) - For the first time, researchers have discovered a pattern of radio signal bursts coming from a single location in space.

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment/Fast Radio Burst Project collaboration detected the fast radio bursts. They occurred every 16.35 days from a source 500 million light-years from Earth, in the outskirts of a “massive spiral galaxy.”

The 28 occurrences happened between Sep. 16, 2018 and Oct. 30, 2019, CNN reported. The CHIME/FRB researchers are publishing the details in a paper on the arXiv database.

FRBs send out milliseconds-long radio waves multiple times, although they have been sporadic or in clusters in other known cases.

The researchers discussed a number of theories for the cause of the radio waves, including neutron stars or other post-supernova activity, as well as the combination of orbital motion and a lower-mass black hole.

There was no mention of extraterrestrial life as a possibility for the radio bursts.

CNN said astronomers can use FRBs to better map how matter is distributed across the universe.