Faint ‘whispers’ from the Moon may unveil the the first billion years of the Universe’s evolution, which has yet to be observed in detail. Very little is known about the first stars and galaxies that came into existence in this early period. One avenue to explore this epoch is to study the faint radio waves from neutral hydrogen atoms.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the great mysteries of the cosmos. They are brief, bright flashes of radio waves that last a few milliseconds. Although thousands occur over the entire sky every day – only a couple dozen have ever been seen. Their origins remain a mystery, but among the possibilities are cataclysmic events such as the evaporation of black holes and collisions between neutron stars.
Avi Shporer, Research Scientist, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. A Google Scholar, Avi was formerly a NASA Sagan Fellow at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). His motto, not surprisingly, is a quote from Carl Sagan: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”