'Like trying to see fog in the dark': How strange pulses of energy are helping scientists build the ultimate map of the universe

An illustration of a flashlight shining a light on different types of particles with a background of galaxies in outer space.

In early 2024, McGill University doctoral student Vishwangi Shah and her colleagues were conducting a routine review of data from the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment when they noticed something strange.

Their analysis traced one of these pulses, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), to the outer edge of a "dead" galaxy with no new stars. By all logic, that region of space should have been silent. Instead, it was shouting across the universe, sending out hugely energetic waves.