Pinpointing the hosts of Fast Radio Bursts with UTMOST-2D

该项目计划首次将探测到的“快速射电爆发”样本定位到它们所在的星系(或当地的前身)。“快速射电爆发”是指无线电能量的脉冲爆发，其特征与距离地球数十亿光年的起源一致。如果能够精确定位爆发的来源，它们将提供一个独特的工具来研究渗透在星际介质中的稀薄的、否则几乎看不见的等离子体。它们也可以作为宇宙尺子来测量宇宙的膨胀历史。到目前为止，还没有与已知距离的宿主星系有关的爆发，一些研究人员坚持认为，快速射电爆发来自更近的来源，甚至可能在我们自己的银河系内。该项目计划探索这一假说。

This project proposes to localise a sample of detected ‘fast radio bursts’ to their host galaxies (or local progenitors) for the first time. ‘Fast radio bursts’ are impulsive bursts of radio energy, with characteristics consistent with an origin billions of light-years from Earth. If the source of the bursts can be pinpointed, they would offer a unique tool to study the tenuous, otherwise nearly invisible plasma that permeates the intergalactic medium. They could also be used as cosmic rulers to measure the expansion history of the Universe. To date, no burst has been associated with a host galaxy at a known distance, and some researchers maintain that fast radio bursts originate from more nearby sources, potentially even within our own Galaxy. The project plans to explore this hypothesis.