Fast Radio Bursts - come in delay multiples of 187.5 (units ?)

[John Murrell]

There is an interesting article on the New Scientist Website about Fast Radio Bursts which are very short bursts of unknown origin.

 

The article http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22630153.600-is-this-et-mystery-of-strange-radio-bursts-from-space.html?full=true - .VRw0wOGJmn8 shows that the bursts fit on a nice straight line but the reason for this is unknown.

 

Worth reading though there is a lot of speculation – there is a 5 in 10,000 chance it is just a coincidence.

 

The delay between the high and low frequencies is what is called the Dispersion Measure (DM) and is a result of the density of electrons the radio wave has passed through. As a result if we assume the Inter Galactic Medium is homogenous on the scales involved this is stating that the FRB sources are in shells at distances 2,3,4,5 & 6 units from the Earth.  The DM implies that the bursts come from  long way away (billions of light years ?) so there should be no Earth centred structure on this scale.

 

It will be interesting to see if this is confirmed by more bursts or is just a statistical anomaly as they only have 10 results.

 

Good Observing

 

John Murrell

Astronomer Without Portfolio

Website www.JohnMurrell.org.uk

 

 

[John Murrell]

For those who think this is an April fool’s joke here is a link to the paper on the archive server http://arxiv.org/abs/1503.05245 .

 

Enjoy

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