'2 billion light-years away': Mysterious signals traced to a galaxy’s ancient edge
Produced by: Mohsin Shaikh
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Mystery Signals
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are fleeting, intense flashes of radio light, lasting mere milliseconds, baffling astronomers for years.
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Magnetar Connection
These bursts are likely linked to magnetars—highly magnetic neutron stars—but much about their origin remains unknown.
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Repeating Clues
FRB 20240209A, observed 21 times in 2024 by the CHIME telescope, provided rare data due to its repetitive bursts.
Pinpoint Source
Astronomers traced this FRB to a galaxy two billion light-years away, pinpointing its origin to the galaxy’s outer edge.
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Old Galaxy
Surprisingly, the host galaxy is 11 billion years old and past its star-forming days, challenging the theory that FRBs stem from young magnetars.
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Ancient Stars
The study proves that even old neutron stars—long thought inactive—can generate FRBs under certain conditions.
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Merging Magnetars
One theory suggests the burst originated in a dense globular cluster where merging magnetars triggered the FRB.
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Unexpected Diversity
The discovery reveals that FRBs are produced by more varied astrophysical processes than previously believed.
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Next Steps
Astronomers are now focused on further observations to confirm whether stellar mergers are behind such repeating FRBs.
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