KUWAIT CITY, Oct 22: Astronomers have detected an intense burst of radio waves resulting from what appears to be a merger between galaxies that occurred eight billion years ago, making it the oldest known example of a phenomenon called a fast radio burst, which still eludes explanation. 

Researchers said that this burst released, in less than a thousandth of a second, the amount of energy that the sun emits in three decades. The explosion was monitored using the Australian Pathfinder Observatory in Western Australia. The location of the waves was determined by the huge telescope called (Free Large) of the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The telescope is one of the most powerful optical observatories in the world. 

The oldest known similar explosion dates back five billion years, making this three-billion year older. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old. Reuters reported that fast radio explosions were discovered in 2007. 

The researchers pointed out that studying these explosions would also help in monitoring and measuring the huge amount of matter that is believed to fill the folds of intergalactic space. 

As these radiation waves travel throughout the universe, they can be evidence of the plasma between galaxies. Plasma is a gas so hot that some or all of its atoms are divided into small subatomic components such as electrons and ions.