(CNN) — Astronomers have spotted the brightest fast radio burst yet coming from a nearby galaxy. Observations of this phenomenon, a powerful flash of radio waves that lasts only about a millisecond, could shed light on one of the most mysterious cosmic phenomena ever studied.

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, were first discovered in 2007, but their exact sources remain unknown. Since their identification, astronomers have been tracing the bursts’ origin in the hopes of gathering clues about what unleashes them and sends them across the cosmos.

Astronomers observed FRB 20250316A, nicknamed “RBFLOAT” for “Radio Brightest FLash Of All Time,” on March 16.

The signal was traced to the galaxy NGC 4141 about 130 million light-years away from Earth. The details of the detection, made with the FRB-h

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