A signal consisting of fast bursts of radio waves in a clear pattern has been detected emanating from deep space — and astronomers believe it could be used to measure the expansion of the universe in the future.
This radio “heartbeat,” detected by a special radio telescope in British Columbia, is described in a new paper published Wednesday inFRBs are sudden bursts of strong, consistent radio waves from space that have no clear source but are detectable across huge distances.
This particular FRB was first detected in December of 2019. Back then, Michilli was a researcher at McGill University, scanning the incoming data of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment , a radio telescope in B.C. made up of four large reflectors.“It was unusual,” he explained. “Not only was it very long, lasting about three seconds, but there were periodic peaks that were remarkably precise, emitting every fraction of a second — boom, boom, boom — like a heartbeat.
If future bursts from FRB 20191221A can be caught by CHIME, it could help astronomers track the rate of the expansion of the universe, astronomers say. The first FRB was detected in 2007. But in CHIME’s first year of operation after opening in 2018, it detected more than 500 new FRBs.
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