Fast Radio Bursts have made astronomers scratch their heads for over a decade now. These bright radio flashes that last for a few milliseconds have always made astronomers wonder about their source, but a recent study published on Wednesday solves the mystery partially. Researchers have probably found the actual source or its location.
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) occur thousand times a day, and only 16 of them have been detected. They are random and cannot be sought easily. The cause was unknown to date. This research answers some very important questions.
The theory behind Fast Radio Bursts partially revealed
Lead author of the research Evan Keane and his colleagues pinpointed a quick flash called FRB 150418 through a quick response system. The flash was detected on April 18 by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization’s (CSIRO) 64-m Parkes radio telescope in Australia. It was tracked down in an elliptical galaxy that was around 6 billion light years away.
Keane made some keen observations in these regards. “In the past, FRBs have been found by sifting through data months or even years later. By that time it is too late to do follow up observations,” said Keane, who is an astronomer with the Square Kilometer Array Organization. But now, they have a ping system on the Parkes radio telescope that sets off a flurry of email alerts, allowing scientists to get straight to work. “I was awoken by my phone going crazy a few seconds after it happened, saying: Evan, wake up! There was an FRB!” explains Keane.
This rapid response system helped the team in taking quick action. The team immediately turned to Australia Telescope Compact Array. This also helped them to catch the FRB’s afterglow. They then used a Subaru telescope in Hawaii that was used to image the source galaxy itself. This eventually allowed them to calculate the distance.
Cause still unknown but new conclusions have been derived
The cause behind FRBs has not been found yet. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. But the good news is that scientists can use the current results to calculate the distribution of matter in the universe. The thing with FRBs is that they are distorted and have varied frequencies. This delay helps scientists to calculate the quantity of space gas and dust the wave has passed through.
Simon Johnston, co-author of the research, said in his statement, “Until now, the dispersion measure is all we had. By also having a distance we can now measure how dense the material is between the point of origin and Earth, and compare that with the current model of the distribution of matter in the Universe. Essentially this lets us weigh the Universe, or at least the normal matter it contains.”
To this, Keane adds, “The good news is our observations and the model match; we have found the missing matter. It’s the first time a fast radio burst has been used to conduct a cosmological measurement.” The research will play a crucial role in further derivation. The scientists plan to open three highly sensitive FRB-detecting instruments this year. This can help in advanced research, and FRBs might not remain mysterious for long.
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