About 10,000 Short And Quick Radio Waves Are Occurring From Beyond The Milky Way Every Day, But Their Cause Remains A Mystery

“If the polarized light passes through electrons and magnetic fields, the angle at which it is polarized rotates, and we can measure that rotation,” Ayush Pandhi, the lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student at the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, said.

“So if an FRB passes through more material, it’ll rotate more. If it passes through less, it’ll rotate less.”

Additionally, non-repeating FRBs seem to come from less violent environments, while repeating FRBs originate from more extreme conditions, such as the remains of stars that died in supernova explosions.

The research also helped cross out one of the major suspects behind the launch of non-repeating FRBs—pulsars, which are highly magnetized rotating neutron stars.

The polarized light from the FRBs and the pulsars are pretty different. If FRBs did come from pulsars, their light would look more similar.

Investigations into these cosmic blasts of energy will continue into the future. Hopefully, further studies will reveal the source of FRBs.