Scientists detected the farthest fast radio burst ever observed in 2024, using the MeerKAT ground telescope array. Fast radio bursts are ultra-fast radio waves from deep space that last a fraction of a second, yet release as much energy as the sun emits in three days. They were first discovered in 2007, and much about them remains unknown.
Now, astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to pinpoint the origin of the 2024 burst. Webb's near-infrared instruments detected a galaxy in the precise location the burst came from. Measurements of how its light has stretched show the burst occurred just 3 billion years after the Big Bang, when star formation in the universe was at its peak. The host galaxy is also about 1,000 times smaller than expected. Previous fast radio bursts were traced to massive, star-forming galaxies that formed billions of years later.
The finding helps test competing theories. One proposes that bursts are generated by the merger of two neutron stars, but such collisions take billions of years to occur, meaning bursts from them would come only from older galaxies. Another theory suggests bursts can arise when massive stars explode in supernovae and leave behind magnetars, rare neutron stars with extremely powerful magnetic fields.
"Our work suggests that it's very unlikely that this [fast radio burst] was produced by a merger," said Manisha Caleb of the University of Sydney, Australia, lead author of the study published in *Science*. In other words, the burst's origin was likely a supernova, supporting the idea that fast radio bursts can come from a certain type of stellar explosion.
Source: Engadget · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing