After five years, scientists might have figured out what’s going on with blasts of mysterious radio waves coming from outside the Milky Way: they’re coming from a zombie star in an extreme environment. In a new study, astronomers suggest this might explain these bizarre intergalactic radio waves, known as fast radio bursts. And it may be the best explanation we have yet for what’s causing them.
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, have been one of the biggest enigmas for astronomers since 2007. These intense blasts of radio waves come from beyond our galaxy, lasting for only milliseconds at a time. No one knows exactly what’s causing them, and studying them is incredibly difficult since they’re so brief. It’s thought that one FRB is being produced in the Universe every second, but only 20 have been detected from Earth over the last decade.
And here’s some background on Fast Radio Bursts from SciShow Space:
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
