8billion year old radio signal reaches earth: “It could help answer many questions”
This signal is a burst of radio waves coming from a distant point in the universe.
Astronomers have detected an exceptional phenomenon: an explosion of radio waves which took 8 billion years to reach the earth, as reported by CNN. It took place in 2022 but has just been revealed.
This explosion is one of the most distant and energetic ever observed by scientists. These waves are called FRBs (Fast Radio Bursts), fast radio waves. These are brief bursts that last only a few milliseconds. Their origin is still a mystery today. Their discovery dates back to 2007 and, since then, hundreds of FRBs have been detected, coming from the universe. Their short duration makes them extremely difficult to observe.
Astronomers have named this latest explosion “FRB 20220610A”. This lasted less than a millisecond, but released the equivalent of the sun's energy output over a period of 30 years.
The observation of these explosions plays an essential role in “weighing” the universe by measuring the matter between galaxies which remains unexplained and thus allowing us to better understand the structure of the universe. This advance “could offer answers to major questions that astronomers have been asking for decades,” as reported in the journal Science.
Source: websites