Fast radio burst tracked to its galaxy of origin
Detection offers clue to matter hiding in space between galaxies
For the first time, astronomers have tracked a blast of cosmic radio waves to its home galaxy.
This burst originated in a galaxy roughly 6 billion light-years away in the constellation Canis Major, researchers report online February 24 in Nature. Identification of a host galaxy has eluded astronomers since the first report of a fast radio burst in 2007. All the bursts typically last for just a few milliseconds and never repeat (SN: 8/9/14, p. 22).