Scientists Unveil Universe’s Hidden Matter by Analyzing Fast Radio Bursts Through Cosmic Fog

For years, scientists thought half of the universe’s ordinary matter was missing. Recently, a breakthrough has shed light on this puzzling mystery.

Astronomers have turned to fast radio bursts (FRBs), powerful emissions of energy, to uncover what’s been hiding in the cosmos. This ordinary matter, made of atoms, isn’t the same as dark matter. While dark matter is invisible and makes up about 85% of the universe, ordinary matter actively interacts with light but has been too sparse for us to notice.

This lack of observable matter has been frustrating for scientists. Much of it is scattered thinly in halos around galaxies and in vast, empty spaces between them. Now, researchers have successfully accounted for this missing ordinary matter using FRBs, which act like cosmic flashlights illuminating the intergalactic medium.

“FRBs shine through cosmic clouds, allowing us to measure how much matter there really is out there,” said Liam Connor, an astrophysicist at Harvard & Smithsonian. By analyzing how FRBs distort while passing through these clouds, scientists can deduce the amount of matter located between us and the distant bursts.

FRBs are short bursts of radio waves, lasting only milliseconds, but they can release energy equivalent to that of the sun over 30 years. Despite being mysterious and hard to trace—many FRBs are one-off events—this study utilized 69 FRBs spaced from about 11.7 million to 9.1 billion light-years away, with the farthest one being a significant find.

The research team, which included experts from Caltech, gleaned much of their data from advanced telescopes designed for FRB detection, such as the Deep Synoptic Array in California and the Australian Square Kilometre Array in Western Australia. These instruments help pinpoint the sources of FRBs and their distances from Earth.

As FRBs travel through space, they pass through various matter, breaking the light into different wavelengths. Think of it like sunlight passing through a prism. This splitting helps scientists gauge the amount of matter in the regions FRBs traverse.

Interestingly, the results of their study reveal that around 76% of the universe’s ordinary matter is found in the intergalactic medium. About 15% is in the halos surrounding galaxies, while only 9% exists within actual galaxies in the form of stars and gas.

The findings align with theoretical models that predict how matter should be distributed throughout the universe. This isn’t just academic; understanding where and how ordinary matter exists has huge implications for cosmic studies. For instance, learning how galaxies evolve could redefine our understanding of the universe.

The research is poised to enhance our exploration of FRBs further. Caltech is planning a new radio telescope, DSA-2000, which aims to spot and locate up to 10,000 FRBs annually. This capability could provide even more insight into the universe’s make-up and lead to exciting discoveries ahead.

The recent study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy on June 16.

Source link