Researchers have been attempting to explain fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are extremely short and powerful energy bursts coming from deep space. Possible causes for these events include black holes and even alien technologies.
Scientists hope to understand under what extreme conditions these powerful signals arise by tracking them back to the galaxies they originate from.
Now, researchers have successfully identified the source of one of these bursts. However, the galaxy from which the signal came is extremely old, dead, and has a strange shape.
Previously detected FRBs only came from much younger galaxies, so this new discovery shakes our current understanding of the sources of these bursts.
Scientists suggest that this finding may show that mysterious cosmic events come from a much wider range of places than we initially thought.
11.3 billion years old and only two billion light-years away The FRB studied in this new work was first detected in February 2024. Thanks to continued signals until July 2024, researchers were able to pinpoint its location in space.
At this point, researchers directed their telescopes to the source of the signal and made an unexpected discovery. Instead of coming from a young galaxy, the signal originated from a galaxy that is 11.3 billion years old and only two billion light-years away from Earth.
When scientists simulated the conditions in this galaxy, they found that it was extremely bright and massive. This galaxy, estimated to have 100 billion solar masses, is now the largest FRB source ever detected and one of the largest galaxies overall.
This study is detailed in two new papers published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters: “A Repeating Fast Radio Burst from the Outer Regions of a Quiet Galaxy” and “The Silent and Enormous Elliptical Host Galaxy of Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 20240209A.”