What is an FRB? Message from space came from seven galaxies
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If you look closely, you can see the 'blob' of galaxies that the mysterious signal came from
Scientists have discovered that a mysterious signal from space in 2022 came from a collection of seven galaxies, around eight billion light-years away.
Astro-physicists call these signals FRBs - which stands for 'fast radio bursts'.
This one in 2022 was the most powerful FRB that they have ever picked up.
Scientists reckon the energy blasts were caused by seven galaxies interacting with each other, that could potentially be merging.
How do you track a signal in space?
The discovery was made thanks to Nasa's powerful Hubble Space Telescope
Astronomers have detected around 1,000 Fast Radio Bursts since 2007.
Sadly, it's probably not a sign of aliens listening to Heart FM.
However, FRBs can teach us a lot about what's going on in space, far far away and a long time ago.
Two years ago, experts detected the most powerful FRB ever.
All they knew was that because it was far away, it came from a long time ago - around halfway between the big bang and now.
When the FRB originated, and the galaxies sent the signal out, the universe was five billion years old.
Now, the universe is about 13.7 billion years old.
There's all sorts of mysteries in space that we still don't understand, but things like the Hubble or the James Webb telescopes could help us learn how we got to where we are now
Now, astronomers in Northwestern University in the USA, have found the source of the FRB - a collection of seven galaxies.
It's quite rare for so many galaxies to be so close together - so the theory is that they have been interacting, which created the burst of energy that we can pick up today.
It's these types of environments - these weird ones - that drive us toward a better understanding of the mystery of FRBs
Strong energy from space
The Hubble Telescope can pick up incredible images from space, like this one
This FRB was around four times more energetic than other FRBs that have been picked up closer to Earth. It was also the most distant.
Astronomers at Nasa used the Hubble Telescope to investigate, and found that what they previously thought was a blob in space was actually a collection of galaxies.
To pick up an FRB this powerful and that far away, there needs to be a lot of energy being created in space for Earth to pick it up. Scientists reckon these galaxies might be merging together, to form something bigger.
It might sound a bit confusing to imagine things that massively far away in space.
In space, we use 'light years' to explain how far away something is.
A light year is how many years it takes light from one place to reach another.
Nasa says one light year is equivalent to around 6 trillion miles.
Because it takes light so long to travel from these places, by the time we see them, even by using our most impressive space technology, it's already been a huge amount of time.