Blog icon

The challenge

A cosmic mystery

One of the greatest mysteries currently occupying astronomers is what causes fast radio bursts. These massive bursts of energy – each equivalent to more energy than our Sun emits in 80 years – last just milliseconds.

The bursts were first discovered in 2007 in archival data collected by our Parkes radio telescope. International research teams are now racing to uncover what causes these brief and powerful events.

Our response

Locating the origin of bursts

An Australian-led team including astronomers from CSIRO, Swinburne University of Technology and the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research has used our ASKAP radio telescope to locate the origin of six bursts to their home galaxies.

Artist’s impression of CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope finding a fast radio burst and determining its precise location. The KECK, VLT and Gemini South optical telescopes joined ASKAP with follow-up observations to image the host galaxy. Credit: CSIRO/Dr Andrew Howells.

To aid this search our engineers developed a customised instrument that can record the telescope’s data stream when a burst is detected. This can be used to determine the burst’s origin with high precision.

Having pinpointed the location of the bursts, the research team used instruments including our Australia Telescope Compact Array and other international telescopes to zoom in on the precise locations of the bursts.

This revealed that bursts came from the outskirts of their home galaxies, ruling out supermassive black holes and several more extreme theories to explain their origins.

For their work so far in locating the home galaxies of several fast radio bursts, our research team was awarded the 2020 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize for the best science paper of the year by the prestigious publication, Science.

The results

Building a catalogue

We don't yet know what causes fast radio bursts. They key to solving this mystery rests with our ability to detect and study a large number of bursts, and determine their exact location, using complementary facilities in Australia and around the world.

Contact us

Find out how we can help you and your business. Get in touch using the form below and our experts will get in contact soon!

CSIRO will handle your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and our Privacy Policy.


First name must be filled in

Surname must be filled in

I am representing *

Please choose an option

Please provide a subject for the enquriy

0 / 100

We'll need to know what you want to contact us about so we can give you an answer

0 / 1900

You shouldn't be able to see this field. Please try again and leave the field blank.