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Astronomers thought they understood fast radio bursts. A recent one calls that into question.
A third outrigger radio array will go online this week at Hat Creek Observatory, a facility in Northern California formerly owned and operated by UC Berkeley and now managed by the SETI Institute in Mountain View. Together, the four arrays will immensely improve CHIME’s ability to precisely locate FRBs.
“When paired with the three outriggers, we should be able to accurately pinpoint one FRB a day to its galaxy, which is substantial,” UC Berkeley Astronomer Calvin Leung said. “That’s 20 times better than CHIME, with two outrigger arrays.”
“CHIME and its outrigger telescopes will let us do astrometry at a level unmatched by the Hubble Space Telescope or the James Webb Space Telescope. It’ll be up to them to drill down to find the source,” Leung added. “It’s an amazing radio telescope.”