Enlarge / The fast radio burst in question, FRB 121102, is located in the top right portion of the image. On the left is a large supernova remnant. (credit: Rogelio Bernal Andreo (DeepSkyColors.com))

A team of researchers has narrowed down the location of a “fast radio burst” (FRB) using sensitive radio observations from the Very Large Array. The burster in question was first discovered in 2012, and researchers obtained a rough location then, but the new pinpointing is roughly a thousand times more precise. While they weren’t able to determine the nature of the bursts’ source with this study, this marks a significant step toward doing so.

Researchers observed the first FRB in 2007, and only about 19 have been observed so far. These events were characterized by, as their name implies, a rapid, high-intensity burst of radio waves. A number of known objects might produce bursts like the FRBs, but it’s been difficult to find out which one(s) are actually causing them. This leaves them a bit of an enigma.

The main problem is that the bursts don’t generally repeat, so it’s been difficult to find out exactly where they’re coming from with much precision. As a result, we can’t figure out what objects are present where the burst originates. So we’ve been left with different hypotheses: some have the bursts produced by some sort of repeating process, which certain kinds of neutron stars could produce, others a singular event, such as the catastrophic collision and destruction of two neutron stars. These differing explanations could all be correct—it’s entirely possible that different bursts are caused by different phenomena.