Mysterious fast radio bursts come in two distinct flavours

A bumper crop of fast radio bursts (FRBs) shows that the mysterious signals come in two distinct types. The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope has detected 535 FRBs — quadrupling the known tally of these powerful cosmic flashes, which flare for just milliseconds. Most of them are one-offs, but a minority repeat periodically and last at least ten times longer than average. The findings suggest that FRBs might originate from at least two astrophysical phenomena — bringing us a step closer to solving one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles.