Fast radio burst in distant universe

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For the first time a team of scientists has tracked down the location of a fast radio burst (FRB), confirming that these short but spectacular flashes of radio waves originate in the distant universe.

Published in Nature, the observation was made using CSIRO's radio telescopes in eastern Australia and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan’s Subaru telescope in Hawaii.

FRBs emit as much energy in one millisecond as the sun emits in 10,000 years, but the physical phenomenon that causes them is unknown.

This, and their apparently huge distances, have tantalised scientists since their discovery in 2007. Astronomers estimate that FRBs might occur 10,000 times a day across the entire sky, but only 16 bursts have ever been found after sifting through recorded data months or even years after it was taken.

In this latest discovery, the researchers recorded a burst from a host galaxy around six billion light-years away.

Importantly, the team developed a system to detect FRBs within seconds, immediately alerting other telescopes with a view to pinpointing their location.

CSIRO’s Parkes telescope was first to detect the fast radio burst. Image: CSIRO, David McClenaghan

This made it possible to use the burst as a tool to find find matter in the universe that had ‘gone missing’.

The contents of the universe are 70 per cent dark energy, 25 per cent dark matter and 5 per cent ordinary matter. However, Astronomers have only been able to 'see' half of the ordinary matter directly in stars, galaxies and hydrogen gas, while the rest has been described as ‘missing’.

Using the FRB, the team was able to ‘weigh’ the universe, or at least the normal matter it contains, and they found that the observations match the model.

"It's the first time a fast radio burst has been used to conduct a cosmological measurement," said Dr Evan Keane from the SKA Organisation, lead author on the Nature paper.

The galaxy from which the burst originated was found to be surprisingly old, well past its prime period for star formation. This could mean that the burst is not related to recent star birth but may have stemmed from two neutron stars colliding.

There could be more than one road to an FRB, Dr Keane said.

But the researchers expect to find more FRBs this year using CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP).

“We expect to find several a week, and really clean up,” Dr Keane said.

More information: www.csiro.au