A strange radio signal heard in space is coming from a nearby galaxy that looks surprisingly like our own, scientists say.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-long flashes of radio waves. Their origin is not known, but some experts suggest they could be evidence of advanced alien life.
Astronomers have now found the source of five of these bursts so far, and the latest discovery looks to come from a similar galaxy to our own.
The newly-discovered source, named FRB 180916, is only half-a-billion light years away from Earth, seven times closer than the only other repeating burst tracked down.
Astronomers have been searching for the source of these deep space signals for over a decade.
The process has been difficult, as the bursts last just milliseconds, and come from anywhere in the sky.
The latest finding creates more confusion over the origin of FRBs, as the first blast discovered came from a tiny galaxy made up of metals and newly formed stars. This means there could be multiple origins.
Sarah Burke-Spolaor, assistant professor of physics and astronomy and co-author on a new paper in Nature, said: "Identifying the host galaxy for FRBs is critical to tell us about what kind of environments FRBs live in, and thus what might actually be producing FRBs.
"This is a question for which scientists are still grasping at straws."
