Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Searches for transient astrophysical sources often reveal unexpected classes of objects that are useful physical laboratories. In a recent survey for pulsars and fast transients, we have uncovered four millisecond-duration radio transients all more than 40° from the Galactic plane. The bursts' properties indicate that they are of celestial rather than terrestrial origin. Host galaxy and intergalactic medium models suggest that they have cosmological redshifts of 0.5 to 1 and distances of up to 3 gigaparsecs. No temporally coincident x- or gamma-ray signature was identified in association with the bursts. Characterization of the source population and identification of host galaxies offers an opportunity to determine the baryonic content of the universe.
Source: Science
Institutions: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia Telescope National Facility, University of Manchester, Astronomy and Space, Australian Research Council, ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics, Swinburne University of Technology, West Virginia University, Curtin University, International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, National Institute for Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, University of Cagliari
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2121795427