8 Billion Years Later: Mysterious Deep Space Signal Reaches Earth

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By Rick Adams

18, Sep 2024

A groundbreaking discovery has rocked the astronomical community: In space for 8 billion years, an amazing and unknown energy signal has finally arrived on Earth in radio waves. 

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This signal, known as FRB 20220610A, is one of the most distant and energetic signals ever detected in space.

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FRBs are short, powerful signals emitted in the form of radio waves; they remain a mystery to researchers. About their origins, astronomers still cannot decide whether they are neutron stars or some other type of astronomical objects.

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The discovery of FRB 20220610A allows us to understand the universe’s past since the cosmic microwave radiation, hence exciting for astronomers.

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This forms a hint that the signal was generated in a galaxy, many times far from ours, making a sneak preview into otherwise unreachable processes and occurrences.

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Fast radio bursts, commonly known as FRBs, are single bursts of radio waves that last for a period of milliseconds. FRBs appeared in 2007, and since then, they have attracted researchers’ attention because of their enigmatic origin.

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For instance, the latest FRB was released within a split second, which was as energetic as the sun for over thirty years.

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Several groups of scientists think that these powerful bursts may be associated with magnetars, which are remnants of supernovae.

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For the detection and identification of the source of this specific FRB, the astronomers utilized ASKAP, or Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder. “Because of ASKAP’s radio dishes that receive the signal, we were in a position to determine the exact location of a burst,” said Dr. Ryder.

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This did not end the investigation, as you will read further down. The team managed to pinpoint the source galaxy using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope; they found that the galaxy was older and located much further away than any other known FRB source.

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You are not going to believe this but these transient celestial explosions could assist astronomers in knowing the “weight” of the universe.

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osmologists arrived at the suggestion that there is ‘missing mass’ or ‘missing matter,’ the quantity of which actually appears to be between the normal matter that is observable in the universe. The missing matter could be out of range of our vision; maybe there is matter that is invisible to the naked eye.

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