Unusual detection bolsters evidence that the mysterious signals can be caused by different astrophysical events

January 28, 2025 | 08:00pm

Strange flashes from ancient galaxy deepen mystery of fast radio bursts

Unusual detection bolsters evidence that the mysterious signals can be caused by different astrophysical events

An artist’s impression of a magnetar — dead stars that are thought to be the source of most fast radio bursts. Credit: Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library

Astronomers have traced the origin of a fast radio burst (FRB) to the edge of an ancient galaxy — suggesting that these mysterious, millisecond-long flashes of energy are even weirder than previously thought.

FRBs were discovered nearly two decades ago, and most are thought to come from magnetars. These dense, dead stars, which host powerful magnetic fields, typically form in young galaxies, when a massive star collapses during a supernova.

Now, an FRB has been found at the edge of a galaxy in which stellar activity has slowed, strengthening evidence that at least some FRBs must have another provenance. “The FRB origin story is far from boring, and certainly far from solved,” says Wen-fai Fong, an astronomer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Fong and her colleagues spotted the signal using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), a radio telescope in southern British Columbia. CHIME has already spotted more than 1,000 FRBs. But this is the first one to be pinpointed using the telescope’s Outriggers, a trio of observatories that help CHIME to detect not just an FRB but also its source. Once CHIME can routinely locate FRBs, “it will be the next big game changer in the field”, says Laura Spitler, an astronomer at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany.