Data from deep space to reach Earth after 8 billion years

undated (WKRC) – A transmission from deep space has reached Earth after eight billion years.

According to Earth.com,Astronomers have recently detected a mysterious and powerful burst of radio waves that reached Earth after traveling through space for eight billion years.

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) 20220610A are believed to be the most distant and energetic radio signals ever observed, according to the outlet, which described FRBs as extremely powerful flashes of radio waves that last only milliseconds.

According to Earth.com, the exact origins of FRBs have scientists baffled, as we are still unsure of what or who is sending these bursts of energy. The site added that the nature of the signals challenges our current understanding of the universe because they originate from far beyond the Milky Way, pointing to events and processes that researchers are only beginning to understand.

FRBs were first discovered in 2007. Since then, they have become a source of interest for the scientific community around the world, according to the outlet.

Dr. Stuart Ryder, an astronomer at Macquarie University in Australia, is working with a team of scientists to unravel the mysteries behind fast radio bursts. He told Earth.com that the team used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) to detect the bursts and determine their origins.

According to Earth.com, researchers said FRB 20220610A emitted as much energy as the Sun produces in 30 years, and they believe it may have been linked to magnetars, high-energy remnants left over after a star explodes.

Fast radio bursts could help scientists “weigh” the universe, Professor Ryan Shannon said, as the amount of matter we can detect is not the amount cosmologists assume there is.

“More than half of the natural material that should be present today is missing,” Professor Shannon told AFP.

According to Earth.com, FRBs have the unique ability to “sense” ionized matter in nearly empty space, which could allow scientists to measure any matter lying between galaxies.

Professor Shannon told the newspaper that the “missing” matter may exist outside our visual range, in places too hot and widespread to be observed by conventional methods.

The newspaper reported that FRBs are believed to be common cosmic events, and Professor Shannon hopes that future radio telescopes, currently under construction, will be able to detect thousands more of them.