Telescope detects hundreds of mysterious radio bursts from far away galaxies

A high-powered telescope detected hundreds of unexplained radio bursts in outer space, leaving scientists looking beyond the galaxy for answers.

More than 500 fast radio bursts (FRBs) were observed by scientists using an antenna-powered telescope called CHIME, or the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, in a 12-month period between 2018 and 2019, according to findings presented Wednesday to the American Astronomical Society. FRBs are intense high-energy radio wave pulses that can last only a fraction of a millisecond, and are thought to travel to Earth from hundreds of millions of light years away.