(Different) radio astronomer here! There are two main types of FRBs: repeaters and non-repeaters. While we are far from understanding the source of every single FRB, it’s looking more and more likely that there is not one single explanation behind every single one. It’s possible that non-repeating bursts come from cataclysmic events like mergers between neutron stars or other heavy objects, while the sources of repeating FRBs could be compact objects like pulsars and magnetars, which have been observed to emit bright single pulses in radio waves.
In fact, CHIME, the radio observatory mentioned in this article, recently published the first large-scale catalog of FRBs. From the growing sample we’ve seen, it looks like there are other differences in the bulk populations of repeating and non-repeating FRBs— things like their pulse shapes as well as their brightnesses at different frequencies. This could also point to there being multiple sources of FRBs, but again, we’re not quite confident enough to draw any strict conclusions.
I will say that there’s no evidence that any FRB we’ve discovered so far has come from any extraterrestrial intelligence or non-natural sources. That’s why we’ve got to keep looking!
evydude456 t1_je1ul5m wrote
Reply to comment by elverloho in Fast radio burst linked with gravitational waves for the first time by spsheridan
(Different) radio astronomer here! There are two main types of FRBs: repeaters and non-repeaters. While we are far from understanding the source of every single FRB, it’s looking more and more likely that there is not one single explanation behind every single one. It’s possible that non-repeating bursts come from cataclysmic events like mergers between neutron stars or other heavy objects, while the sources of repeating FRBs could be compact objects like pulsars and magnetars, which have been observed to emit bright single pulses in radio waves.
In fact, CHIME, the radio observatory mentioned in this article, recently published the first large-scale catalog of FRBs. From the growing sample we’ve seen, it looks like there are other differences in the bulk populations of repeating and non-repeating FRBs— things like their pulse shapes as well as their brightnesses at different frequencies. This could also point to there being multiple sources of FRBs, but again, we’re not quite confident enough to draw any strict conclusions.
I will say that there’s no evidence that any FRB we’ve discovered so far has come from any extraterrestrial intelligence or non-natural sources. That’s why we’ve got to keep looking!