When the first repeatingFast Radio Burst(FRB ) was discovered in 2016 , stargazer thought it might be a co-occurrence or an anomaly . A further 24 had been reported prior to this week , ruling both those scenario out . Now , a single paper has double the total to 50 thanks to the efforts of the Canadian Hydrogen Mapping Experiment ( CHIME ) wide - playing area radio telescope . We may still be shy what is make them , but it ’s not rarified .

As their name suggest , FRBs are spurts of radio wave endure millisecond or less . Most look to bolt down up once , and not reoccur , at least in the 16 years since they were disclose . However , seven years ago FRB 121102 was set up to reprize , overturn the assumption all FRBs were a side - upshot of cataclysmic events .

The challenge in finding FRBs , take over or not , is the sky is big , and without knowing what causes them we ca n’t hump where to take care . engineering has come to the deliverance , however . Where once radio telescopes could only follow tiny component of the sky at a clock time , some newer instrumental role have much wider fields of view , especially CHIME , which can see the whole northerly sky . A multi - institutional team put this to employ and reported 25 new repeating FRBs .

The authors did not conduct their own observations . Instead , they utilized CHIME ’s primary purpose ; take the distribution of the universe ’s most common element , hydrogen . In the process , CHIME has amassed an immense amount of data , which could be searched for other matter – FRBs included .

One obstacle to finding replicate FRBs is that the timelines on which they iterate are so varied . FRB 121102 collapse ten time in a year . The paper ’s discovery included some with twelve bursts in a 20 - calendar month period of time , while others had just two . " We need a long reflexion clip because some repeaters could repeat every 10 years . We just do n’t do it . They do n’t play by our time scales , " say study co - writer , University of British Columbia PhD student Adam Dong , in astatement

If FRBs come from within the whitish Way we could confine our search for them to the galactic plane . However , withrare exception ,   they do n’t . That intend we have no discriminatory way in which to bet . Just following up on those that have been pick up bursting once does n’t help much . The authors observe or so 2 percent of the FRBs we have insure going off have repeated . " Many patently one - off FRBs have simply not yet been watch over long enough for a second burst from the source to be observe , " said carbon monoxide gas - writer Dr Ziggy Pleunis of the Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics .

The positive side of finding a repeater , particularly one that explode often , is that the source can be observe using instruments that function in the non - radio part of the electromagnetic spectrum . At a lower limit , we will con more about the galaxy they fall from ( currently a very diverse bunch ) – but ideally , we may spot something at optical or infrared wavelengths concur with a outburst . " In the tenacious run , we hope to larn a lot about their origins , " said co - source UBC Professor Ingrid Stairs .

stargazer have already been trying to find radiation diagram in the antecedently discover echo FRBs ’ behavior , and the larger sample distribution will in spades help . Magnetars – vastly magnetic neutron stars – are thought to be responsible for some repeating FRBs , but they may not all have the same cause . Complicating matters further , the squad discover repeating FRBs have lower dispersion measures than those that only burst once .

Besides want to get laid what they are , those same dispersal cadence have meant FRBs have helped usmeasure the Milky Way ’s nimbus . At least we now jazz how to distinguish them fromprematurely opened microwave ovens .

The study is open access inThe Astrophysical Journal