The overwhelming part of the universe is still a mystery to astronomers – and most of what we know is a result of deduction and analysis. So it should be no big surprise that when radio waves from 11 billion light years was received, they couldn’t pinpoint its origin.

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Their brightness and distance suggest that they originated when the Universe was half its current age, and judging by the very high energy levels, astronomers believe they originated in an extreme, relativistic object – such as a neutron star, or a black hole. Lead author Dan Thornton, a PhD student at Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, explained that only such an extreme event could be the cause.

But, as always, with such little understood phenomena, the good news is that it will help improve our understanding of the Universe in which we live in. Astrophysicists still aren’t sure exactly what happens in the space between galaxies, and this will likely help them solve this mystery.

The results were published in Science