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Cosmic Whistle Packs a Surprisingly Energetic Punch

Penn State University astronomers have discovered that the mysterious “cosmic whistles” known as fast radio bursts can pack a serious punch, in some cases releasing a billion times more energy in gamma-rays than they do in radio waves and rivaling supernovae in their explosive power. The discovery, the first-ever finding of non-radio emission from any fast radio burst, drastically raises the stakes for models of fast radio bursts and is expected to further energize efforts to chase down long-lived counterparts to FRBs using X-ray, optical, and radio telescopes.

FRBs, were first discovered in 2007, and in the years since radio astronomers have detected a few dozen of these events...

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