A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, a mysterious flash of energy was released into the universe. Astronomers have now detected that flash, a burst of radio waves which travelled for more than 10 billion years before reaching Earth – what they believe to be the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded.
What are Fast Radio Bursts?
FRBs are intense bursts of radio waves that can emit as much energy in milliseconds as the sun does in months or years. These mysterious pulses were first discovered in 2007 and have puzzled scientists ever since, with speculation from some that they could have an alien origin.
New Discoveries
In a new study published in Science, researchers have detected an FRB that originated when the universe was only about 3 billion years old, meaning it has travelled through "approximately 80% of cosmic history." The burst, dubbed FRB 20240304B, is believed to be the farthest yet detected, more than double the previous distance record.
The scientists detected the burst using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, and subsequently identified its host galaxy using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Dr. Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney, one of the lead researchers on the paper, stated, "when the burst was produced, there was no Earth, there was no sun."
