Astronomers Discover 8 Billion-Year-Old Radio Signal with Extreme Energy Levels
A groundbreaking discovery has been made by astronomers, who have detected an eight billion-year-old radio signal containing extreme levels of energy. According to the journal Science, the signal, known as a “fast radio burst,” lasted just a millisecond but released a truly staggering amount of energy, equivalent to what the sun releases in 30 years.
The radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation was identified as FRB 20220610A, and its true nature has often been hard to determine due to its brief duration. It is believed that these bursts result from galaxies merging to create new stars, and they could also be used to measure the mass of elements found between galaxies that are currently unaccounted for, shedding light on the mystery of missing matter in the universe.
Coauthor Ryan Shannon commented, “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. We think that the missing matter is hiding in the space between galaxies, but it may just be so hot and diffuse that it’s impossible to see using normal techniques.”
The discovery was made using the Australian SKA Pathfinder radio telescope, with further observation confirming that the fast radio burst is the oldest and most remote example discovered to date. This comes after the puzzling discovery earlier this year of a mysterious object emitting radio waves every 21 minutes for the past 45 years, leaving astronomers baffled as to its true nature.
As the study of fast radio bursts and other cosmic phenomena continues, the hope is that these discoveries will continue to shed light on the mysteries of the universe and provide new insights into the nature of space and time.