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Mysterious fast radio bursts help astronomers pinpoint cosmic ‘missing’ matter

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Dark matter and dark energy make up most of the universe, but the rest is made of ordinary matter.

The inability to detect roughly half of the cosmos’ ordinary matter led to a decades -long cosmology struggle called the missing baryon problem.

Now, astronomers have used the flashing of fast radio bursts to map out what couldn’t be seen before.

The 69 fast radio burst bursts exist at distances from 11.74 million to nearly 9.1 billion light-years from Earth .

Scientists say 76% of cosmic matter exists as hot, low-density gas in the space between galaxies.

Another 15% can be found in galactic halos , while the remainder is located within galaxies themselves as stars, planets or cold gas.

Understanding the distribution of ordinary matter can help researchers understand how galaxies grow and evolve.

Caltech is planning to build another radio telescope in the Nevada desert.