Press release: Japan’s first Fast Radio Burst detection

A team of Japanese researchers, including Sota Ikebe at the University of Tokyo and Tetsuya Hashimoto at National Chung Hsing University, detected a bright, mysterious fast radio burst (FRB) using a 64m radio telescope at the Usuda Deep Space Center/JAXA. This is the first detection of an FRB in Japan, and the burst came from a galaxy at a distance of 1.5 billion light years. FRBs are like mysterious radio fireworks in the Universe, and their origins are yet unknown. “Uncovering the origin of FRBs is exciting because more than 1000 mysterious fireworks are happening daily in the sky, which no one had noticed before. It is my honor to work on one of the most important missions in modern astronomy,” says Tetsuya Hashimoto, an Assistant Professor at National Chung Hsing University and an author of the research paper. “It was my big surprise that even an old radio telescope could conduct cutting-edge science in astronomy.”

Please visit the following link for the full description of the press release:
English
https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/info/8249/
日本語
https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/info/8244/

Link to the NCHU physics
English
https://www.phys.nchu.edu.tw/en/news/ins.php?index_id=44
中文
https://www.phys.nchu.edu.tw/news/ins.php?index_id=486

Tetsuya Hashimoto
Tetsuya Hashimoto
Assistant professor (NCHU)