The recent discovery of eight new signals means astronomers may finally have all the clues they need to solve a longstanding mystery.
Because FRBs last only a thousandth of a second or so, any object producing them couldn’t be much bigger than 200 miles across — the distance radio waves can cover in that time. This suggests that the source is considerably smaller than an ordinary star: it might be a collapsed stellar corpse — the compact remains of a star that has exhausted its nuclear fuel — or possibly a black hole that’s swallowing something or undergoing a collision.
For more, check out this NBC News story.