Astronomers using the James Webb telescope have successfully pinpointed the origin of one of the brightest blasts of radio energy ever detected in Earth’s skies. The team used the JWST’s infrared eye to identify a powerful explosion of energy coming from a large, old star that may be the strange signal’s progenitor.
The researchers tracked the bright radio burst, known as FRB 20250316A, to the edge of a galaxy some 130 million light-years from Earth. They then used CHIME’s new Outrigger array to further narrow down the location and pinpoint it to a region of space measuring just 45 light-years across.
The JWST provided crucial data by detecting a burst of infrared energy in the exact spot where the FRB had been detected. The telescope also examined individual stars in the surrounding neighborhood, painting a picture of the radio burst’s original environment with unprecedented clarity.
While neither type of star is a viable source of FRBs, it’s plausible that an unseen companion star — such as an energy-spewing neutron star — orbits the infrared object, potentially triggering the bright radio burst. Alternatively, one of the larger stars in the cluster may have already collapsed into a magnetar, emitting the FRB.
This groundbreaking research demonstrates the capabilities of the newly upgraded CHIME experiment and the powerful partnership between JWST and CHIME. It sheds new light on stellar dynamics, revealing how different stars behave over their bright-but-tumultuous lives, and brings us closer to solving one of the biggest outstanding mysteries in astrophysics.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/james-webb-telescope-pinpoints-origin-of-brightest-flash-of-radio-light-ever-detected