Radio burst flew to Earth for more than 10 billion years before astronomers could find his homeland. The James Webb telescope discovered the galaxy from which came the most distant known radio signals of this type. The size of the galaxy was a complete surprise.
The short pulse of FRB 20240304B was registered on March 4, 2024 on the South African MeerKAT radio telescope as part of the MeerTRAP project. Such fast radio bursts (FRBs) last milliseconds, but can release enormous energy. According to the characteristics of the signal, researchers suspected a record range, but it was impossible to establish an exact distance without the observation of the galaxy.
Astronomers have accurately determined the area of the sky from where the impulse came, but even the largest ground-based telescopes could not see the galaxy there. Then the researchers turned to James Webb. The NIRCam infrared camera detected a weak object, and the NIRSPEC spectrograph measured the redshift of 2,148. The signal arose when only about 3 billion years had passed since the Big Bang.
The scale of the parent galaxy was unexpected. Instead of a large system with many stars, astronomers saw a small dwarf galaxy, about a thousand times less massive than they expected. New stars were actively born inside. According to scientists, most of the stellar population could have formed in just 30 million years.
The discovery helps to understand what generates mysterious impulses. One hypothesis links the FRB to the collision of two neutron stars, which gradually come closer over billions of years. The other involves the flares of young magnetars, the remnants of massive stars with an extremely strong magnetic field. Such an object may appear shortly after the explosion of the supernova.
The young galaxy is better aligned with the second scenario. According to Manisha Caleb from the University of Sydney, the collision of neutron stars hardly gave rise to FRB 20240304B. However, there is no direct evidence of the participation of the magnetar. Scientists have established a place of origin of the radio, not a specific star that emitted it.
For a long way to the Earth, the impulse kept traces of the substance encountered on the road. The researchers found the influence of two structures: the Virgo cluster of about 54 million light-years and the previously unknown galaxy cluster of about 3.5 billion light-years. As explained in the study of radio bursts, such signals help to study the invisible gas between galaxies.
Further searches could give astronomers a sample of such ancient signals. According to the authors of the work, MeerKAT is able to find several radio bursts per year with a red displacement above one. To test the distances and properties of their galaxies, the Webb telescope will again be required. New observations will help to understand how early the sources of FRB appeared in the universe.
The short pulse of FRB 20240304B was registered on March 4, 2024 on the South African MeerKAT radio telescope as part of the MeerTRAP project. Such fast radio bursts (FRBs) last milliseconds, but can release enormous energy. According to the characteristics of the signal, researchers suspected a record range, but it was impossible to establish an exact distance without the observation of the galaxy.
Astronomers have accurately determined the area of the sky from where the impulse came, but even the largest ground-based telescopes could not see the galaxy there. Then the researchers turned to James Webb. The NIRCam infrared camera detected a weak object, and the NIRSPEC spectrograph measured the redshift of 2,148. The signal arose when only about 3 billion years had passed since the Big Bang.
The scale of the parent galaxy was unexpected. Instead of a large system with many stars, astronomers saw a small dwarf galaxy, about a thousand times less massive than they expected. New stars were actively born inside. According to scientists, most of the stellar population could have formed in just 30 million years.
The discovery helps to understand what generates mysterious impulses. One hypothesis links the FRB to the collision of two neutron stars, which gradually come closer over billions of years. The other involves the flares of young magnetars, the remnants of massive stars with an extremely strong magnetic field. Such an object may appear shortly after the explosion of the supernova.
The young galaxy is better aligned with the second scenario. According to Manisha Caleb from the University of Sydney, the collision of neutron stars hardly gave rise to FRB 20240304B. However, there is no direct evidence of the participation of the magnetar. Scientists have established a place of origin of the radio, not a specific star that emitted it.
For a long way to the Earth, the impulse kept traces of the substance encountered on the road. The researchers found the influence of two structures: the Virgo cluster of about 54 million light-years and the previously unknown galaxy cluster of about 3.5 billion light-years. As explained in the study of radio bursts, such signals help to study the invisible gas between galaxies.
Further searches could give astronomers a sample of such ancient signals. According to the authors of the work, MeerKAT is able to find several radio bursts per year with a red displacement above one. To test the distances and properties of their galaxies, the Webb telescope will again be required. New observations will help to understand how early the sources of FRB appeared in the universe.
