Where do fast radio bursts (FRBs) come from and how do they form? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as an international team of researchers located a repeating FRB residing outside a dead galaxy that could challenge longstanding hypotheses regarding the origin, formation, and evolution of FRBs throughout the cosmos. Until now, FRBs have been found to form from active star-forming regions inside active galaxies, but this new finding could burst these longstanding notions.
For the study, the researchers used the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME)/FRB telescope to analyze 22 bursts emanating from FRB 20240209A that occurred between February and July 2024. After careful data analysis, the researchers located FRB 20240209A to be approximately 40 kiloparsecs (130,000 light-years) from its galaxy, which was found to not be actively forming stars. This means this is the farthest FRB located away from its galaxy and the first to be located in a region where star formation isn’t occurring, thus challenging longstanding hypotheses regarding the origin of FRBs throughout the cosmos.
“This discovery challenges our previous understanding of FRBs, and highlights the significant role that their environments play in unraveling their origins,” said Dr. Tarraneh Eftekhari, who is a NASA Einstein Fellow and radio astronomer at Northwestern University and a co-author on the study.
The reason FRBs are so intriguing to study is that they produce powerful radio waves that could help scientists better understand the formation and composition of the universe. While their exact origin is still unknown, researchers continue to advance radio astronomy techniques to provide more comprehensive analyses of FRBs, thus bringing scientists closer to ascertaining their origin, formation, and evolution.
What new discoveries about FRBs will researchers make in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science!
As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!
Sources: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, EurekAlert!
Featured Image: Artist’s illustration of a fast radio burst. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
