[Steely Tom]

With regard to power, one of the videos on FRBs states that the estimated energy in one pulse is 10^30 joules, which would make them basically the brightest objects in the universe. That's assuming the radiation pattern is isotropic, which certainly doesn't have to be the case. The class of objects knows as "quasars" were originally thought to be the brightest objects in the universe, but (I believe) that was later shown to be probably false; quasars are now thought to be beam phenomena that happened to be aimed directly at us.

In the video I link in this story, one of the professors talks about a theory that the FRBs result from a magnetic field phenomenon that may take place on magnetars, sort of an ultra-powerful magnetic star-quake, analog of a phenomenon that's been observed in solar storms on our own Sun.

I don't think the "deep shaft" theory is necessary to get such a powerful pulsing effect. You could also have two super-massive objects orbiting around a common center of mass; one of them functions — by means of its gravitational field — to focus the emissions of the other into a highly focused beam.

The frequency-sweep phenomenon is very interesting because it's fairly hard to produce in nature. To see it at such stupendous power levels and sweep rates is highly thought-provoking, and explains why this phenomenon is getting so much attention.

[TXnMA]

LOL!! The "deep shaft" was just a "gedanken experiment crutch" to confine and collimate a beam. I actually envision a "directed, collimated, coherent phenomenon" -- analogous to

"Cosmic Jets" -- except this one barely shows up at all at radio frequencies... And, of course, whole galaxies don't whirl around fast enough to present brief, repetitive pulses at a distance...'-)

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Like most everyone else here, I suspect that a magnetar may be a good culprit to blame for this one... '-)