A new study published in the journal Nature Astronomy shows that powerful radio waves can be used to study gas in nearby galaxies.
Fast radio bursts are radio waves that originate millions to billions of light-years away and are similar to the light we see with our eyes. Hundreds more have been found since the first FRB was discovered. In 2020, Caltech's STARE2 instrument and Canada's CHI ME detected a massive FRB that went off in our own galaxy. It was confirmed that the energetic events most likely come from dead, magnetized stars called magnetars.
The gas that lies between us and the bursts is being asked how it can be studied. They would like to use the FRBs to investigate halos of diffuse gas. The radio waves are expected to be slowed by the gas in the galaxies. The researchers looked at a sample of 474 distant FRBs and found that the subset that passed through the halos were slowed down more than non- FRBs.
"Our study shows that FRBs can act as skewers of all the matter between our radio telescopes and the source of the radio waves," says LiamConnor, the Tolman Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Astronomy, who works with assistant professor of astronomy and study co-author.
"We used fast radio bursts to shine a light through the halos of galaxies and measure their hidden material."
According to the study, there is more matter around the galaxies than expected.
All the galaxies are fed by huge pools of gas that were created when they were babies. The gas is difficult to detect. These are huge gas fields. If the human eye could see the halo, it would be one thousand times bigger than the moon.
Different techniques have been used to study the halos. Caltech professor of physics Christopher Martin and his team developed an instrument at the W. M.
Astronomers will be able to measure the total amount of material in the halos using this new method.
"This is just the beginning," saysRavi. As we discover more FRBs, our techniques can be applied to study individual halos of different sizes and different environments, addressing the unsolved problem of how matter is distributed in the universe.
The discoveries are expected to continue. Several FRBs have been detected and identified by the DSA-110. The project is funded by the National Science Foundation. The DSA-2000 will be the most powerful radio observatory ever built and will include 2000 dishes. The DSA-2000 will detect and identify the source of thousands of FRBs annually.
The Nature Astronomy describes the impact of halo gas on radio bursts.
More information: Liam Connor et al, The observed impact of galaxy halo gas on fast radio bursts, Nature Astronomy (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41550-022-01719-7 Journal information: Nature Astronomy
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