Humans may have conquered the ability to float about in space, leave a mark on the moon, and even snap photos of a Martian winter, but there’s still a lot of the great unknown we are yet to discover. Now, a mysterious repeated radio signal coming from a nearby galaxy could widen the scope of exploring the universe beyond our Milky Way, especially since scientists have confirmed that it came from a spiral-like galaxy that is similar to our own.

On January 6, 2020, astronomers announced that they had detected and traced back a repeating fast radio burst (FRB)—inexplicably intense blasts of energy in the form of electromagnetic radio waves. They say it could be anything from unexplored natural phenomena to a sign of alien life trying to contact us. While scientists still aren’t sure whether this is actually a real-life ET indicating their arrival on earth or just a totally random event, they have confirmed that it comes from a galaxy only half-a-billion light-years away, closer than any of the four bursts previously found, and most notably has a nature that bears a striking resemblance to our own.

While it is difficult to examine and identify FRBs in detail due to the fact that they barely last for a millisecond, this is the second time a repeated radio signal has been recorded, with the previous one being found in 2019 with the help of eight radio telescopes in a galaxy that is seven billion light-years away. The source of this signal also has a completely different nature from the one previously identified prompting scientists to rethink their theory that these radio signals were a result of the kind of newly formed stars found in that particular galaxy.

"The FRB is among the closest yet seen, and we even speculated that it could be a more conventional object in the outskirts of our own galaxy," said Mohit Bhardwaj, study co-author and McGill University doctoral student in an interview with CNN. "However, the observation proved that it's in a relatively nearby galaxy, making it still a puzzling FRB but close enough to now study using many other telescopes.” Not only is this new repeating FRB unlike the other repeating signal that was found, but it’s also different from all other fast radio bursts ever traced in the universe.

"Identifying the host galaxy for FRBs is critical to tell us about what kind of environments FRBs live in, and thus what might actually be producing FRBs," said Sarah Burke-Spolaor, assistant professor of physics and astronomy, and co-author of the scientific paper published in the journal Nature. Learning more about the galaxy the burst comes from can inform astronomers about the environment from which they originate and, ultimately, allow them to decode what’s responsible for creating these explosive radio waves. Since the latest signal hits closest to home, it will be kept under close observation for any further activity in the future.

So whether it’s aliens sending out signals to us (actually, we’re aliens for them in that case) or simply a natural occurrence brought about by intense energy bursts, understanding what causes these FRBs could unravel a lot more about the universe we exist in.

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