Fast radio bursts: recent discoveries and future prospects

Understand

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are quickly becoming a subject of intense interest in time-domain astronomy.

• The progenitors of FRBs remain unknown but a wide variety of models exist from cataclysmic to repeating scenarios.
• Advances in FRB detection using current and next-generation radio telescopes will enable the growth of the population in the next few years.
• Real-time discovery of FRBs is now possible with 6 sources detected in real-time within the past 2 years at the Parkes telescope.