A strange bright burst in space baffled astronomers for more than a year. Now, they’ve solved the mystery

By Clancy William James, Senior Lecturer (astronomy and astroparticle physics), Curtin University

Around midday on June 13 last year, my colleagues and I were scanning the skies when we thought we had discovered a strange and exciting new object in space. Using a huge radio telescope, we spotted a blindingly fast flash of radio waves that appeared to be coming from somewhere inside our galaxy.

After a year of research and analysis, we have finally pinned down the source of the signal – and it was even closer to home than we had ever expected.

A surprise in the desert

Our instrument was located at Inyarrimanha…

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