A bright millisecond radio burst of extragalactic origin

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery of a bright, millisecond-duration radio burst of extragalactic origin, suggesting such events are rare but potentially valuable for cosmological studies.

Contribution

It presents the first detection of a dispersed millisecond radio burst outside our galaxy, indicating a new class of transient events with cosmological implications.

Findings

The burst is located outside the Milky Way and Small Magellanic Cloud.

No additional bursts were detected in follow-up observations.

Such events could occur hundreds of times daily, serving as cosmological probes.

Abstract

Pulsar surveys offer one of the few opportunities to monitor even a small fraction (~0.00001) of the radio sky for impulsive burst-like events with millisecond durations. In analysis of archival survey data, we have discovered a 30-Jy dispersed burst of duration <5 ms located three degrees from the Small Magellanic Cloud. The burst properties argue against a physical association with our Galaxy or the Small Magellanic Cloud. Current models for the free electron content in the Universe imply a distance to the burst of <1 Gpc No further bursts are seen in 90-hr of additional observations, implying that it was a singular event such as a supernova or coalescence of relativistic objects. Hundreds of similar events could occur every day and act as insightful cosmological probes.