Astronomers Identify Host Galaxy of Most Distant Fast Radio Burst

An international team of astronomers has identified the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) ever detected, with the signal having traveled over 10 billion years to reach Earth.

Utilizing the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), researchers pinpointed the source of FRB 20240304B. The burst, lasting only about one millisecond, released a significant amount of energy.

The JWST's Near-Infrared Camera captured images of the host galaxy, which was undetectable by ground-based telescopes. Its measured redshift of 2.148 indicates the galaxy existed approximately 3 billion years after the Big Bang.

The findings, published in the journal Science, suggest this FRB originated from a young, actively star-forming dwarf galaxy with only one-thousandth the mass of typical FRB host galaxies. Researchers propose the burst may have been caused by a young, highly magnetized neutron star (magnetar), rather than the previously theorized neutron star merger.

This discovery provides crucial insights into the origins of fast radio bursts and the evolution of the early universe.