Question for some of you science/space nerds out there. If we're picking up these signals on earth, 1.5 billion light years away from their original source location -- which is the wording of the article -- doesn't that mean that signals themselves were created at best a long freaking time ago? Does a radio wave move faster than light - even one with a huge amount of energy behind it? I find that highly doubtful, but I'm curious if anyone on here knows the answer.Far outside our Milky Way galaxy, something is causing repeating short bursts of radio waves to be released into space. Scientists have recorded the second repeating fast radio burst to be discovered, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The finding was also presented at the 233rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
These radio bursts are only millisecond-long radio flashes, and such rapid bursts themselves aren't rare in space.
But this is only the second one that has been found to repeat. The mystery about why these bursts happen and where they come from continues, which always spurs believers to think that advanced extraterrestrial civilizations are creating them.
The whole time element to these conversations is so fascinating to me. CNN's first thought in that article is -- ooohhhh, aliens cool! The science-y nerd in my is --- ooohhhh, cool space event! But, considering the time involved here, regardless of what we trace these signals to cosmic phenomena or intentional action, we are juuuuust a bit more than fashionably late to the party.