Astronomers have traced two mysterious fast radio bursts from space to wildly different places, which suggests the phenomenon may originate in diverse ways.

Scientists led by Northwestern University and McGill University have traced a fast radio burst (FRB) to the edges of an ancient elliptical galaxy. Scientists had previously thought that these quick radio blasts,

Astronomers have observed over a thousand of them to date; some come from sources that repeatedly emit FRBs, while others seem to burst once and go silent. You can produce this sort of sudden surge of energy by destroying something.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense flashes of radio light that last for only a fraction of a second. They are likely caused by the intense magnetic fields of a magnetar, which is a highly magnetic neutron star.

Instead of finding the radio burst in a region of young stars, researchers traced its origin to the outskirts of a “dead” elliptical galaxy.