Unexplained cosmic radio burst captured in real-time

PARKES, Australia, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- For the first time in history, a fast radio burst (FRB) was recorded in real-time. The massive (but quickly dissipating) burst of radio waves was captured by the Parkes Telescope in New South Wales, Australia.
A fast radio burst, sometimes called a blitzar, is a tight band of radio-frequency waves that lasts only a millisecond. But the energy packed into that fleeting burst is the equivalence of what the sun puts out over the course of one million years.

The new study detailing last year's burst was published this week in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.