This is a good illustration of the core problem we have in "anomaly detection" in data science. Often we are presented with a challenge that if solved, would negate the presence of the challenge itself: We have to look for events that aren't explained or predicted to exist by our current understanding of the given system. To find them, we collect all events and evaluate their likelihood under our best model, taking the least-likely as our "anomalous" events. Then, once found, we have to explain them. But to explain them requires that we understand the system well enough to predict the existence of those events. If we did, we could have produced a better model, and that model would have rated those events as more likely. So they wouldn't have shown up. This contradiction seems to be inherent to the whole concept of anomaly detection.
<i>We still don’t know exactly what is causing the FRBs that started this whole peryton investigation, although we find that they cannot be explained by the same microwave ovens and many properties of FRBs point towards a genuine astrophysical origin.</i><p>I wouldn't be surprised if those also eventually were found to be caused by something on this planet.
TFA says that a peryton, a class of astronomical signal, is named for a mythological beast, a winged elk. After first shuddering over the idea of an elk flying over one's head, I went to Google to find more about this as I've never heard of this beast before. Its source appears to be from author Jorge Borges who claims to have found a reference in an medieval manuscript. There appears to be no substantiating evidence elsewhere which is why it isn't as well known as other creatures of mythology.
* Navy pilots report unexplained flying objects | Hacker News || <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20018535" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20018535</a><p>I saw this as the follow up article on the front page, and it got my hopes up.