Source of intense radio signals coming from space found

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Lerato Khumalo

For years, researchers have been trying to explain fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are extremely short, powerful bursts of energy coming from deep space. Possible causes of these events include black holes and even alien technologies.

By tracking these bursts back to the galaxies they come from, scientists hope to understand the extreme conditions under which such powerful signals emerge.

Now, researchers have managed to identify the source of one of these explosions. However, the galaxy from which the signal came was extremely old, dead, and strangely shaped.

Previously detected FRBs came only from much younger galaxies. The new discovery therefore shakes up the current understanding of the sources of these explosions.

According to the news reported by the Independent; Scientists say this discovery could show that mysterious cosmic events come from more diverse places than we thought.

ONLY TWO BILLION LIGHT YEARS AWAY FROM EARTH

The FRB examined in the new study was first detected in February 2024. Thanks to the signals that continued until July 2024, researchers were able to determine its position in space.

After this stage, the researchers pointed their telescopes at the source of the signal and made an unexpected discovery. Instead of a young galaxy, the signal appeared to come from a galaxy that is 11.3 billion years old and just two billion light-years away from Earth.

When scientists simulated the conditions in this galaxy, they revealed that the galaxy is extremely bright and massive. This galaxy, estimated to have a mass of 100 billion Suns, was the largest FRB source ever detected and one of the largest galaxies overall.

This work is detailed in two new papers, “A Repeating Fast Radio Burst from the Outer Regions of a Quiet Galaxy” and “Repeating Fast Radio Burst in the Quiet and Massive Elliptical Host Galaxy of FRB 20240209A,” published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.