ASKAP pinpoints location of one-off radio burst 4 billion light years away

In a world first, an Australian-led international team of astronomers has determined the precise location of a powerful one-off burst of cosmic radio waves. The discovery was made with CSIRO’s new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in Western Australia. The galaxy from which the burst originated was then imaged by three of the world’s largest optical telescopes – Keck, Gemini South and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. The cause of fast radio bursts remains unknown but the ability to determine their exact location is a big leap towards solving this mystery