Astronomers Hopeful A Distant Fast Radio Burst Will Unlock Secrets Of The Early Universe
Here's some backstory to explain how groundbreaking this is. Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are highly energetic but extremely brief radio wave pulses from outside our galaxy. They last just a few milliseconds, and most of them have been discovered at a distance of 0.5 redshifts and below. Astronomers use redshift to measure distance in space (when wavelength of the light is stretched, so the light is seen as 'shifted' towards the red part of the spectrum). So a redshift of 0.5 means previously discovered FRBs come from galaxies around 5 billion light years away, which is relatively close to us in time and space. Astronomers have not really found high-redshift FRBs, which are farther away and would provide important details about how galaxies formed when the universe was still young.
However, on March 4, 2024, a team of astronomers led by Manisha Caleb from the University of Sydney, Australia, detected FRB 20240304B using the MeerKAT telescope from South Africa. Discovered at a redshift of about 2.148, it originates from 11 billion years ago, when the universe was just about 3 billion years old. This is twice as far as the previous farthest FRB scientists could pinpoint to a galaxy.
FRB 20240304B's signal showed a measured dispersion of about 2,460 pc/cm³, confirming that it did come from far away. With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team categorized it as a low-mass, clumpy, star-forming galaxy. Its origin falls during the "cosmic noon", a period where the universe formed stars at the highest rate. FRB 20240304 B's discovery could push scientists closer to understanding the origins of our universe.
Over the years, scientists have used the Hubble telescope and the James Web Space Telescope to make a lot of astonishing discoveries about space. Though less prominent, the MeerKAT radio telescope has also been used to unravel several astronomical mysteries: For example, over three years ago, MeerKAT captured an image of an Odd Radio Circle (ORC) in high definition for the first time. Months later, MeerKAT also helped astrophysicists understand some elements at the center of our Milky Way galaxy. It is worth noting that MeerKAT is currently the only telescope equipped to detect FRBs from a distance of over 3 billion light-years from the onset of the universe. These sophisticated telescopes installed at various strategic locations are a testament to humanity's commitment to understanding the mysteries of the vast universe and its origins.
Images Courtesy of NASA
