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INTERGALACTIC ASTROPHYSICS

Intergalactic sleuthing with cosmic radio bursts

The discovery of four bright fast radio bursts with accurate localization on the sky and association with nearby galaxies enabled a statistical estimate of the baryon content in the intergalactic medium and intervening galaxy halos by measuring the amount of ionized gas towards these sources.

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Fig. 1: Four new fast radio bursts were detected by the ASKAP interferometer, localized to galaxies 1.5 to 6.5 billion light years away.

Simulations of cosmological structures adapted with permission from the Illustris Collaboration/Illustris Simulation

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Correspondence to Michael Shull.

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Shull, M. Intergalactic sleuthing with cosmic radio bursts. Nat Astron 4, 560–561 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1116-1

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