Astronomers have not yet seen that fast radio flashes are broadcast so regularly and still do not know their origin.

Astronomers have detected extraterrestrial signals - signals from another galaxy - broadcast regularly in sixteen-day cycles. Fast radio flashes (FRBs) are not in themselves so unusual - the first were captured in 2007 - but previous observations have shown that they are mostly broadcast randomly. Although some flashes were detected that were repeated, none had been repeated in such regular cycles.

The origin of FRB has not yet been determined, although the prevailing theory suggests that signals are generated by rapidly rotating bodies such as neutron stars or black holes. Scientists studying data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) found that FRB signals arrived on Earth twice an hour for four days, then abruptly stopped and started again after twelve days. Their origin was localized to a region of a medium-sized spiral galaxy some 500 million light-years away, making them the closest FRB ever discovered.

Scientists have observed this cycle for 409 days and believe it can be associated with an orbital object for 16 days. However, they add that, since FRBs are incredibly powerful electromagnetic energy discharges, they could come from a neutron star - although if it were, it is assumed that the star will fluctuate and not exhibit the same exact cycle.

The researchers clarified their findings in an article published on arXiv before it underwent a review and press. In 2017, Professor Avid Loeb of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in the United States suggested that FRBs could be an escape from planet-sized extraterrestrial transmitters. He said that rather than being designed for communication, they could be used to propel giant spacecraft based on solar sailboats, which would move by the beams impinging on the giant reflective film. There is currently no evidence to support the hypothesis that FRBs are associated with extraterrestrial civilization.

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