New findings unveil insights into the origins of fast radio bursts.
In 2024, astronomers identified the most distant fast radio burst ever observed, utilizing data from the MeerKAT telescope array. Fast radio bursts are intense emissions of radio waves originating from deep space, lasting mere milliseconds while releasing energy equivalent to what the Sun outputs in three days. Discovered in 2007, these bursts remain largely mysterious. However, astronomers have now harnessed the capabilities of the James Webb telescope to trace the source of the 2024 burst, offering potential insights into its origin.
The observations from Webb’s near-infrared instruments pinpointed a galaxy positioned at the burst’s origin. Analysis of the light’s stretching indicates that the event transpired just 3 billion years following the Big Bang, during an era of peak star formation in the universe. Notably, the originating galaxy is found to be significantly smaller than previously anticipated, measuring 1,000 times less massive than expected for such bursts. Previous fast radio bursts have typically emerged from larger, star-forming galaxies billions of years later in cosmic history.
Several hypotheses attempt to explain the generation of fast radio bursts. One suggests they occur from the collision of two neutron stars. However, the merger of neutron stars—resulting from the remnants of massive supergiant stars—takes billions of years, implying such bursts originate only from older galaxies.
An alternative theory posits that these bursts could originate from the catastrophic collapse of massive stars in supernovae, leading to the formation of magnetars, a rare type of neutron star characterized by extraordinarily strong magnetic fields. “Our study indicates that it’s very improbable for this [fast radio burst] to have resulted from a merger,” said Manisha Caleb from the University of Sydney, who led the research published in Science. Their findings imply that this burst likely originated from a supernova, reinforcing the notion that fast radio bursts may arise from specific stellar explosions.
