Astronomers spot record-breaking fast radio burst from early universe

Astronomers have detected the most distant fast radio burst ever recorded, a mysterious flash of radio waves that travelled for more than ten billion years through roughly eighty percent of cosmic history. Published in the journal Science, the new study reveals that the burst, named FRB 20240304B, originated when the universe was only about three billion years old.

Discovery Methods

Researchers initially caught the intense pulse using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa through the MeerTRAP project on March fourth, two thousand twenty-four. Because ground-based telescopes could not spot any galaxy at that precise spot, the team turned to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Webb's Near-Infrared Camera and Near-Infrared Spectrograph instruments pinpointed the host galaxy and measured its redshift at two point one four eight.

Host Galaxy

Data from the Webb telescope showed that the burst came from a young, very small dwarf galaxy that is forming stars at a high speed with a low amount of metals. Most previously known fast radio burst galaxies are massive star-forming systems, but this host galaxy was one thousand times less massive than expected and existed during a peak star-formation period known as cosmic noon. Over ten thousand fast radio bursts have been found since their discovery in two thousand seven, with some repeating and others flashing only once.

Context

Fast radio bursts are millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from deep space that can emit as much energy in milliseconds as the sun does over months or years. While their exact origin remains uncertain and some past speculation even considered alien sources, scientists frequently point to magnetars or neutron stars as likely producers. Because these radio waves are affected by the particles they pass through, astronomers use them like a line-of-sight count to measure unseen matter and atoms across the distant universe.