Notes

“This fast radio burst shined a light on a galaxy’s mysterious gas halo”
Lisa Grossman, 9/26, 2:00 AM
A fast radio burst, or FRB is a pulse of length that can be from a fraction of a millisecond to milliseconds. This FRB came from a distant universe and passed through another to get to Earth. The result of this action created a surprising thin and calm halo of gas, described by researches on September 26th . A CGM, or a circumgalactic medium, is thought of by scientists as a galaxy’s heart, meaning it controls the life cycle of the galaxy. Because natural light is very hard to find around CGM’s, it is harder to study. As a solution, scientists have relied on using natural light from other objects such as quasars, a large and remote celestial object that give out large amounts of energy. Astrophysicist J. Xavier Prochaska of the University of California theorized that FRB’s could also light up CGM’s for study. The astrophysicist reasoned that since both quasars and FRB’s give off light in different wavelengths, then it must be able to give light to the CGM. The differences between the light of the quatar is that the FRBs can reveal gas’s density and magnetic fields directly.