Scientists have detected a strange signal that took 10 billion years to reach Earth. It has come from deep space near the dawn of time

Among the strangest signals that astronomers can detect emerging from deep space are fast radio bursts , mysterious bursts of energy that last only milliseconds, but whose origins remain unknown.

Now astronomers have detected and traced a fast radio burst that has been travelling across the Universe for 10 billion years before reaching Earth.

This flash of radio waves originated when the Universe was only 3 billion years old, making it the most distant fast radio burst ever detected.

The burst was detected by Dr Manisha Caleb and Dr Themiya Nanayakkara from the University of Sydney, Australia.

The team used the South African MeerKAT radio telescope to make the discovery as part of the MeerTRAP project, which searches for 'transient phenomena' in space like fast radio bursts.

They were then able to use the James Webb Space Telescope to link the burst, designated FRB 20240304B, to its host galaxy.