A team of astronomers have been left stunned after detecting the brightest ever fast radio burst in deep space.
The powerful burst, labelled FBFLOAT, was detected early this year and is believed to have originated from over 130 million light years away.
Fast radio bursts (FRB) are long-flashes of radio waves that emit a similar amount of energy in just milliseconds than the sun does over a number of days.
Since first being detected in 2007, scientists have now discovered over 4,000 unique FRBs courtesy of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), a group of telescopes constantly searching for the mysterious waves.
Fast radio bursts (FRB) are long-flashes of radio waves that emit a similar amount of energy in just milliseconds than the sun does over a number of days
|GETTY
However, scientists were left stunned after CHIME detected a flash earlier this year which smashed the record for the brightest FRB ever seen by double.
Astrophysicist Amanda Cook from Montreal's McGill University said: “I had never seen anything like this."
Dr Cook and her colleagues nicknamed the exceptionally bright wave RBFLOAT, an anagram for "radio brightest flash of all time".
She added: “since it was so bright, we knew it was very close", due to the waves getting dimmer as it approaches our planet.
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) are a group of telescopes constantly searching for the mysterious waves.
|CHIME
Due to the close proximity of the discovery, scientists were able to examine RBFLOAT's surroundings in detail.
The telescopes revealed that the burst of energy originated from the outskirts of a young star-forming area and with the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers were able to spot infrared signals coming from the same region.
Harvard University astrophysicist Peter Blanchard said: “We have never detected some other type of emission at some other wavelength to really give us an idea of what could possibly be causing [FRBs]."
Although the exact origins are unknown, scientists believed the detection of the infrared light may have given them a crucial hint.
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Professor Avi Loeb from Harvard University has previously suggested that FRBs may be energy outpourings from alien transmitters
| GETTYAn infrared light can be emitted when an enormous red star losses mass to a companion magnetar, which is a type of neutron star which has been recorded shooting beams of intense energy.
Another theory the researchers have come up with suggests that a magnetar ejected energy, which can produce gamma rays, X-rays alongside FRB, which was absorbed by nearby dust and discharged in the form of an infrared light.
However, Professor Avi Loeb from Harvard University has previously suggested that FRBs may be energy outpourings from alien transmitters the size of planets.
He theorised that it may be specifically designed to propel alien space crafts equipped with light sails
Prof Loeb said: "An artificial origin is worth contemplating and checking."
In 2022, scientists managed to narrow down which galaxies were emitted powerful FRBs.
The powerful bursts was traced back to a rare "blob-like" cluster of galaxies over 8 billion light years away.
The study's lead author, Alexa Gordon, said: “It’s these types of environments - these weird ones - that drive us toward a better understanding of the mystery of FRBs.”