The Arecibo Observatory. (Photo credit: NAIC - Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF)

The Arecibo Observatory. (Photo credit: NAIC – Arecibo Observatory, a facility of the NSF)

A team of scientists observed a ‘fast radio burst’ using the Puerto Rican Aceribo radio telescope coming from outside our galaxy, a new study shows.

This confirms previous observations from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia and discard the hypothesis that these would have originated near Earth. These high-energy radio bursts last only a few milliseconds and their origins are still unknown.

Original research paper published in the The Astrophysical Journal on July 10, 2014.

Names and affiliations of selected authors

Victoria Kaspi, McGill University, Quebec