Astronomers have identified the source of a fast radio burst (FRB) for the first time, tracing it to an ancient, dead elliptical galaxy. The discovery challenges the long-held assumption that FRBs are produced by young stars in regions of active star formation.
Researchers from Northwestern University and McGill University conducted two studies, which were published on January 21, in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. The team detected a repeating fast radio burst, dubbed FRB 20240209A, with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in February 2024.
The new FRB is believed to have originated from the outskirts of an 11.3-billion-year-old galaxy, located just 2 billion light-years from Earth. This ancient galaxy is extremely luminous and massive, making it one of the most massive host galaxies associated with a fast radio burst so far.
The discovery highlights that not all FRBs originate from young stars in star-forming regions as previously thought. The team suggests that there might be a subpopulation of FRBs associated with older systems. This finding opens up new avenues for research and raises questions about the origins of these mysterious cosmic events.
Previous studies have only detected one other FRB at the outer fringes of a galaxy, which occurred in a tight cluster of stars on the edge of Messier 81 (M81) in 2022. The new discovery shares similarities with this event and could be a “twin” of the M81 FRB.
The team proposes that the repeating FRB might have originated within a dense globular cluster, which is a promising site for magnetars formed through alternative mechanisms and associated with older stars. Follow-up observations with the James Webb Space Telescope are planned to determine if there is indeed a globular cluster present at the FRB location.
This discovery underscores the vast mysteries surrounding fast radio bursts and highlights the importance of continued research into their origins and environments, which could hold the key to unlocking their secrets.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-01-fast-radio-dead-elliptical-galaxy.html