This is where the fast radio bursts come from.
“They have the signatures of all the gases they travel through,” Shannon said.
Some FRB wavelengths slow down slightly as they travel through this material, giving scientists a way to measure it.
This could help them figure out how much matter is in the cosmic web – and hence, the total weight of the universe.
As for the record-breaking FRB, Shannon said the team had seen signs of “excess material” undergoing the explosion during its journey through the universe.
But to use this information to get a proper measure of the weight of the universe, hundreds more FRBs would need to be observed, he said.
Many more advanced radio telescopes are expected to come online soon, with astronomers hoping this will happen relatively quickly.
Liam Connor, an astrophysicist at the California Institute of Technology who is not involved in the research, told AFP that future radio telescopes will find thousands of FRBs, allowing scientists to weigh all the matter “across cosmic ages.”
