Radio Burst Distance Measurement Confirmed

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First Ever Fast Radio Burst Distance Measurement Confirms Their Cosmic Origin
February 24, 2016 - by Jonathan O'Callaghan

Since they were first discovered in 2007, fast radio bursts (FRBs) have bemused astronomers. These brief but bright flashes of radio waves have been picked up by several telescopes, but their origin remained a mystery. Now, for the first time, we know for sure that they are coming from the distant universe.

It might seem like a strange discovery to herald, but FRBs have caused controversy in the past. Last year, several similar signals were found to be the result of scientists opening and closing a microwave oven door in a facility’s break room. Confirming they are an astrophysical phenomenon allows us to further investigate what might be producing them – something we still don’t know.

“They’re not from our galaxy, not our atmosphere, not our microwave ovens. They’re definitely from the distant universe,” Dr. Simon Johnston, from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia, and a member of the research team, told IFLScience.

A paper describing the discovery, named FRB 150418, on April 18, 2015, is published in this week’s Nature. Using a combination of the Parkes radio telescope in Australia, the CSIRO’s Compact Array telescope 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of Parkes, and the Japanese Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, the astronomers found a flash that originated in an unnamed galaxy 6 billion light-years away. The burst itself lasted just one millisecond, but it produced an afterglow that lasted six days, allowing its position to be located.

More amazing pictures and more text is on the web site.