MYSTERY  RADIO SIGNAL FROM 500 LIGHT YEARS AWAY REPEATS EVERY 16 DAYS

An international team of astronomers at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst Project in British Columbia has discovered that a mystery radio source in a galaxy some 500 million light years away is sending out fast radio bursts like clockwork in 16.35 day cycles. The cycle includes 1-2 bursts per hour over a four-day period and then 12 days of silence before starting up again. The discovery is important, because out of the 150+ fast radio bursts recorded by Earth-based observatories over the last 15 years, only ten of them have repeated, and none as steadily as this one. The radio burst has been tracked down to a star-forming galaxy about 500 million light years from Earth. Scientists have several possible explanations. One possibility is that it is an object orbiting a sun which sends signals out only at a certain interval in its orbit. Alternatively, it could be a signal sent by a binary star system. Or it could come from a highly magnetic neutron star.
* First of all, let’s congratulate the folks at the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst Project for coming up with the sexiest name ever.
* You can also shorten it to the extremely cool acronym “CHIMEFRBP”. Pronounced “chime-frobop”.
* While we’re at it, what is Canadian hydrogen doing in a galaxy 500 million light years away?
* A radio burst every 16 days? I bet when they decode it, it’ll turn out to be a commercial for Toyotathon’s End of Model Year Last Chance to Buy Sale.
* It could be the ghost of Casey Kasem trying to re-establish a Top 40 Countdown Show for the universe.
* A repetitive radio signal. What a bizarre scientific phenomena. Anyway, let’s check in with traffic and weather.