Astronomers are still struggling with gaining an insight into the celestial phenomenon of fast radio bursts (FRBs). These mystifying occurrences in the space have gained a lot of attention pertaining to their origin.

These cosmic radio explosions were recently discovered to have occurred in a series and have challenged the earlier notions about the phenomenon. The previously detected FRBs occurred in the form of a single blast.

Astronomers detected the first FRB eight years ago and since then only 17 FRBs have been found. This time round, the FRBs’ occurrence was detected by the hypersensitive Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. The data collected during this occurrence was examined by a team of astronomers, who realized that this event was actually a collection of 11 subsequent explosions in the same location in the sky.

“This research shows for the first time that there can be multiple FRBs from the same place in the sky – with the same pulse dispersion or distance”, said co-author of the study, Cornell Senior Researcher Shami Chatterjee.

The most recent occurrence of FRBs has not only added variety in the type of FRBs but also questioned the understanding of this phenomenon. A popular consideration was that FRBs occur due to the explosive collision of two neutron stars. However, this theory cannot be applied to the series of bursts.

Jason Hessels, lead author of the study and associate scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, stated that the series of bursts is likely to have occurred when the burst safeguards its source so that the explosion can again happen.

It is somewhat similar to the magnetar’s magnetic field recalibration. Every day it is expected that over 10,000 FRBs occur in the sky, but they are extremely difficult to be detected in the real time. Most of the FRBs that have been discovered till date have been detected by the Parkes telescope in Australia.