RESEARCHERS have discovered a mysterious fast radio burst from outer space, leading to questions around its origin.

The fast radio burst (FRB), spotted further away from earth than ever before, was picked up in June last year – but it is not yet known whether aliens are the cause.

FRBs were first uncovered in 2001, but still no one knows where they come from, or whether they are a message from other beings.

The signals are, however, utilized to measure missing matter between galaxies.

The most recent FRB was discovered last year by astronomers in Australia, and confirmed by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT). 

It was said to be the most energetic signal that was ever detected, and it came from a galaxy eight billion light years away from Earth.

According to the findings published in the Journal of Science on Thursday, the FRB lasted less than a second.

The energy emitted, however, was equivalent to the sun’s regular emission over a 30-year period.

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While scientists don’t know much about the possible extraterrestrial burst, they do believe it is the key to measuring the universe.

“If we count up the amount of normal matter in the universe — the atoms that we are all made of — we find that more than half of what should be there today is missing,” Ryan Shannon, a co-author of the latest study and professor at the Swinburne University of Technology told the Daily Mail.

“We think that the missing matter is hiding in the space between galaxies, but it may just be so hot and diffuse that it’s impossible to see using normal techniques.”

He added: “Fast radio bursts sense this ionized material. Even in space that is nearly perfectly empty they can ‘see’ all the electrons, and that allows us to measure how much stuff is between the galaxies.”

As of now researchers, like the late astronomer Jean Pierre Macquart, believe that the further an FRB is from the earth, the more we can get an accurate measure of the universe.

“J-P showed that the further away a fast radio burst is, the more diffuse gas it reveals between the galaxies. This is now known as the Macquart relation,” Stuart Ryder, an astronomer from Macquarie University in Australia explained.

“Some recent fast radio bursts appeared to break this relationship. Our measurements confirm the Macquart relation holds out to beyond half the known universe.”

As of now, researchers are limited by our current technology and the current telescopes available.

However,  the construction of the international Square Kilometre Array Observatory in South Africa and Australia is meant to bring new information on the FRBs to the forefront.