Aussie telescope detects record

Shannon led the report on the signals detected with a high-powered telescope in Western Australia.

SYDNEY (Web Desk) - Australian researchers on Thursday said they have detected a record number of mysterious radio waves from space, including the closest and fastest of such bursts ever found, that may help shed more light on the matter between galaxies.

"We’ve found 20 fast radio bursts in a year, almost doubling the number detected worldwide since they were discovered in 2007," said Dr Ryan Shannon from the Swinburne University of Technology in Victoria state capital Melbourne. Shannon led the report on the signals detected with a high-powered telescope in Western Australia.

The flashes of radio waves come from all over the sky and last for just milliseconds and while their exact causes are not yet known they are thought to come from the other side of the universe and involve incredible energy, equivalent to the amount released by the sun in 80 years, said the researchers.

The bursts also travel for billions of years and occasionally pass through clouds of gas, said study co-author Dr Jean-Pierre Macquart from Curtin University.