Radio energy detected from deep space

An international team of astronomers, including one Australian, has detected a burst of radio energy from deep space using the Parkes radio telescope. The huge burst of energy, described by one of the astronomers as "strong by astronomical standards", is possibly the result of two stars colliding or the death of a black hole."The burst appears to have originated from the distant universe and may have been produced by an exotic event such as the collision of two neutron stars or the last gasp of a black hole as it evaporates completely," said lead researcher Assistant Professor Duncan Lorimer, from West Virginia University.Professor Matthew Bailes, of Swinburne University and the Australian on the team, said radio energy bursts were usually very faint at such extreme distances.

"Normally the kind of cosmic activity we're looking for at this distance would be very faint but this was so bright that it saturated the equipment," he said."It was sitting there just booming in - it was very, very bright," he said.The "radio hyperburst" is located millions of light years away and is believed to have originated from a source less than 1500 kilometres in size, and lasted five milliseconds.It was so strong when first detected six years ago, that it was dismissed as man-made interference.