Breakthrough detects repeating fast radio bursts coming from distant galaxy

Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15136775.

I wish there was some more color to the actual character of these fast radio bursts. There's not much to go on, given the nearly absent qualitative descriptions of what they are.

According to wikipedia, these are millisecond events, with no indication of any kind of embedded signal or carrier waveform, so I think the phrasing of the term as a "burst" described as "fast" is misleading and confuses a lot of people.

These seem more like strobes or flashes of light, than anything else. But to outsiders, the word burst sounds like packets of data, and "fast" hints at broadband network speed, so people jump to thinking about aliens.

It sounds like these are just blinking flashes in the radio region of the EM spectrum, even if that's a strange wavelength to find isolated flashes in. Seems like people are running wild with their imagination.

finally.. they have come back for their messiah The Donald.