Rapid bursts of radio waves from millions to billions of light-years away can be used as probes to study the halos of hazy gases that are hard to see.
Rapid bursts of radio waves from millions to billions of light-years away can be used as probes to study the halos of the hard-to-see hazy gas that surrounds closer galaxies. These pulses, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), slow down as they transit through the gas shrouding the galaxy between their source and Earth. This has the added consequence of their radio frequency scattering. Using this to investigate the galaxy’s gaseous halo, researchers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) found twice as much matter as previously believed in the envelope surrounding the galaxy. This has implications for how this collection of stars and planets evolves over long periods of time. Astronomers looked at a sample of 474 distant FRBs with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) which confirmed that the 24 FRBs intercepted by the galactic halo did indeed slow down compared to the others that traveled to Earth unimpeded. Thus, this effect can be used to investi