An article published in the journal “Nature” describes research that has uncovered the place of origin of a Fast Radio Burst (FRB). These radio signals that last only a few milliseconds are picked up with no phenomenon that might warn about its arrival. An international team of astronomers used observations made by optical and radio telescopes to trace the origin of this phenomenon.

The FRB that started this research was detected on April 18, 2015 at the Parkes Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, thanks to its 64-meter radio telescope, nicknamed the Dish or the Big dish. A warning to colleagues around the world started from that event and various telescopes started searching the signal.

Thanks in particular to the six 22-meter dishes of ATCA (Australian Telescope Compact Array) it was possible to detect the radio signal’s afterglow, which was recorded for about 6 days. The accuracy of the measurements was much greater than in the past, allowing to locate the FRB’s position with an accuracy about 1000 times better than previous attempts.

The NAOJ (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) Subaru telescope in Hawaii allowed to look for the FRB’s point of origin. It was identified in an elliptical galaxy about 6 billion light years from Earth. The first FRB was detected about 8 years ago and this is the first time that the origin of this type of signal is identified.

This research was also useful to confirm the current cosmological model describing the distribution of matter in the universe. This is due to the characteristics of the radio signal that reached the Earth, determined by the phenomenon called dispersion. In essence, the FRBs are detected first at their higher frequencies and only later at their lower ones. This dispersion depends on the amount of ordinary matter the FRB went through.

In the case of the FRB of 18 April 2015, identifying the source allowed the researchers to obtain information on the matter density between that point and the Earth, including that not directly visible. The result confirmed the current models of distribution of matter in the universe. This research will be refined in the next decade when the powerful SKA (Square Kilometre Array) radio telescope will be built.

[ad name=”AmazonDocumentary”]