Over 1,000 cosmic explosions traced to mysterious repeating fast radio burst

An outburst of interstellar explosions has been traced back to a mysterious repeating fast radio burst in space.

Using China's Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, or FAST, researchers detected 1,652 bursts over the course of 47 days, between Aug. 29 and Oct. 29, 2019. This is the largest set of fast radio burst events so far.

A study detailing these findings published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are millisecond-long emissions of radio waves in space, and astronomers have been able to trace some radio bursts back to their home galaxies. Scientists have yet to determine the actual cause of the flashes. But the short bursts can produce a year's worth of our sun's total energy output.

Individual radio bursts emit once and don't repeat. But repeating fast radio bursts are known to send out short, energetic radio waves multiple times. FRB 121102 has been known as a repeating fast radio burst since 2016.