A starquake 10 billion years ago may have just sent a flash to Earth
Astronomers have detected a fast radio burst (FRB) originating from a dwarf galaxy 10 billion light-years away, marking the most distant such event ever recorded. The discovery, made using the MeerKAT and James Webb telescopes, provides new insights into the early universe.
Why it matters
This discovery demonstrates that fast radio bursts can be used as tools to study the early universe and challenges existing theories about the types of galaxies that produce these signals.
A split-second flash of radio waves traveled through space for more than 10 billion years to reach Earth, making it the farthest fast radio burst anyone has detected and confirmed.Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, last only a few thousandths of a second but release enormous amounts of energy. Scientists spotted the first one in 2007, and they still don't know what causes them. Most flash only once, which makes them extremely hard to chase.South Africa's MeerKAT radio telescope caught this one, dubbed FRB 20240304B, on March 4, 2024. After failing to find its origin with the world's largest ground-based telescopes, the team, led by Manisha Caleb and Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney in Australia, turned to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.
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