Ultra-Fast Radio Bursts Redefine Cosmic Speed: New Type of FRB Lasts for Only Ten-Millionths of a Second

A new study explores "ultra-fast radio bursts" (FRBs), an entirely new category of FRBs lasting a mere ten-millionths of a second or less. Traditionally, FRBs were known to endure only for thousandths of a second, but this research builds upon a 2021 study suggesting the existence of even briefer FRBs, measured in millionths of a second.

Notably, astronomers recently detected the oldest and farthest FRB ever recorded, located about 8 billion light-years from Earth. The study's lead author, Mark Snelders, fortuitously discovered a public dataset, facilitating this groundbreaking research.

New Discovery Suggests Fast Radio Bursts More Common Than Expected

In their study, titled "Detection of ultra-fast radio bursts from FRB 20121102A" published in in Nature Astronomy, the team accessed five hours of data on the well-known FRB named FRB 20121102A, which was initially discovered in November 2012.

This FRB is situated about three billion light-years from Earth and is noteworthy for being the first documented repeating FRB, as reported in a 2022 study.

To analyze events at millionths-of-a-second precision, the researchers required specific data. Astronomer Mark Snelders, the lead author of the study from the University of Amsterdam, said in a press release that they discovered a publicly available dataset suitable for their study.

The data was sourced from the Breakthrough Listen project, a global scientific initiative aiming to detect signs of extraterrestrial intelligence at the Green Bank section of the Open Data Archive.

With the acquired data, the researchers divided the first 30 minutes into half a million separate images for each second. They applied machine learning and software filters to isolate anomalies in the data, ultimately identifying eight ultra-fast radio bursts that lasted a mere ten-millionths of a second or less. To provide context, ten-millionths of a second is equivalent to 0.00001 seconds.

The findings indicate that there exists a category of ultra-fast radio bursts that current wide-field FRB searches fail to detect due to their insufficient time resolution. This suggests that FRBs are more common and diverse than previously believed and could impact our understanding of their energy, frequency, and burst rate patterns.

Although the origin of these ultra-fast radio bursts remains a question, the team anticipates discovering more of them in the future. However, the challenge lies in finding data files that can be split into half a million separate images per second, as not all files possess the required specifications for this process.

Unlocking Cosmic Secrets with Ultra-Fast Radio Bursts

The team's overarching objective is to utilize FRB data to chart the uncharted regions between stars and galaxies. This pursuit aims to enhance their comprehension of interactions between galaxies and the surrounding gas environment.

FRBs, since their discovery in 2007, have been an enigmatic cosmic phenomenon. Astronomers have made significant progress in unraveling their potential origins and understanding their prevalence in the universe. It was revealed that most FRBs originate beyond our Milky Way Galaxy; but in 2020, one source was identified within our Milky Way, originating from a magnetar.

Furthermore, a 2023 study identified 25 regularly repeating FRBs using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), which has detected over 1000 FRBs.

As FRBs traverse space, they exhibit a unique signature - specific frequencies arrive earlier while others are delayed due to encounters with interstellar gas and dust on their path to Earth. This information serves to map the obscured space between stars and galaxies, offering valuable insights into the process of galactic gas accumulation from the cosmos.

Microsecond FRBs may prove to be an even more precise tool for interstellar mapping, akin to upgrading one's prescription glasses. With the discovery of a source of these microsecond bursts, astronomers are eager to uncover more, raising anticipation for the revelations yet to come in the field of FRB research.