Researchers have observed the oldest energy burst yet. 

A global team led by Dr Stuart Ryder from Macquarie University and Associate Professor Ryan Shannon from Swinburne University of Technology has uncovered the most ancient and distant fast radio burst (FRB) ever detected, dating back approximately eight billion years. 

The remarkable discovery validates the use of FRBs in measuring the “missing” matter that exists between galaxies.

The researchers made the remarkable find using CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope on Wajarri Yamaji Country on June 10, 2022.

This FRB event, known as FRB 20220610A, released energy equivalent to the Sun's total emissions over 30 years within a fraction of a second.

The investigation revealed that the source of the FRB was a group of two or three merging galaxies, supporting prevailing theories regarding the origins of these mysterious radio bursts. 

The study also showed that, with current telescopes, FRBs dating as far back as eight billion years can be detected.

The discovery reaffirms the concept that FRBs can be employed to measure the density of matter between galaxies, a theory first proposed by Australian astronomer Jean-Pierre ‘J-P’ Macquart in 2020. It was coined the ‘Macquart relation’, and the recent findings confirm its validity up to half of the known universe.

Fast radio bursts have become a common phenomenon in the cosmos, with approximately 50 pinpointed to date, nearly half of which were discovered using ASKAP. 

The authors anticipate detecting thousands more across the sky and at even greater distances.

The upcoming Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescopes, currently under construction in Western Australia and South Africa, are poised to enhance the detection capabilities for even older and more distant FRBs. 

Furthermore, ESO's Extremely Large Telescope, currently being built in Chile, will be essential for studying the source galaxies of these radio bursts.

This international effort involved researchers from various institutions, including ASTRON (Netherlands), Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile), Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (Japan), SKA Observatory (UK), and several American universities.

In Australia, participants included Macquarie University, Swinburne University of Technology, CSIRO, ICRAR/Curtin University, ASTRO 3D, and the University of Sydney.

More details are accessible here.