Cosmos Calling

 

DISCOVERIES

The Cosmos Calling

Astronomers spotted a distant and powerful radio wave burst which took eight billion years to journey across the universe to reach Earth, CNN reported.

In their paper, scientists explained these signals are known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), which they describe as intense blasts of radio waves that last only a few milliseconds.

The recent burst, named FRB 20220610A, was identified using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder radio telescope in Western Australia. The researchers explained that this FBR was peculiar because of its incredible energy release – in less than a millisecond, it emitted the same amount of energy as our Sun produces in 30 years.

While the origins of FRBs have puzzled scientists for years, the recent finding could help understand the sources of these cosmic signals.

Current theories suggest that these radio bursts may be linked to magnetars, highly energetic objects that result from the explosive deaths of massive stars.

The team explained that they traced FRB 20220610A to what appears to be a group of galaxies that are in the process of merging, interacting and forming new stars.

Still, studying these phenomena could also help in calculating the amount of matter between galaxies that remains unaccounted for in the universe.

“If we count up the amount of normal matter in the Universe – the atoms that we are all made of – we find that more than half of what should be there today is missing,” said study co-author Ryan Shannon.