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Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to identify the host galaxy of FRB 20240304B, the most distant fast radio burst recorded. The burst originated in a small dwarf galaxy 10 billion years ago.
Astronomers have identified the host galaxy of the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The burst, designated FRB 20240304B, was first detected by the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa and is believed to have traveled for more than 10 billion years before reaching Earth. The findings were published in the journal Science.
The MeerTRAP team used the MeerKAT telescope to detect the burst on March 4, 2024. The signal exhibited a large amount of dispersion, a phenomenon where different frequencies of radio waves arrive at slightly different times due to travel through electrically charged material. This dispersion suggested the signal originated from a great distance. However, ground-based telescopes, including the Keck Telescopes, could not see the host galaxy because it was too faint.
To confirm the distance and identify the source, researchers turned to the JWST. The telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) detected a galaxy at the precise location of the burst. Subsequently, the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument measured the galaxy’s redshift at 2.148. This measurement corresponds to a time just 3 billion years after the big bang, meaning the burst has traveled through “approximately 80% of cosmic history,” according to Dr. Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney.
The identification of the host galaxy provided unexpected insights into the origins of FRBs. While most previously identified FRB host galaxies are massive star-forming galaxies, the galaxy hosting FRB 20240304B is a small dwarf galaxy. It contains only about 10 million times the mass of our Sun, which is a tiny fraction of the mass of the Milky Way.
Manisha Caleb of the University of Sydney, the lead author of the study, noted the discrepancy between expectations and observations. “We thought it would be a big, nicely formed galaxy with lots of stars, and instead it was a little dwarf galaxy, although it was actively forming stars,” Caleb said. The galaxy is forming stars at a high speed and has low metal content.
The characteristics of the host galaxy support the theory that some FRBs originate from magnetars, which are young, highly magnetic neutron stars. This theory suggests that an FRB can occur relatively quickly after a massive star explodes as a supernova, leaving behind a magnetar. This rapid timeline aligns with the discovery of the burst in a young galaxy.
Conversely, the findings make it unlikely that this specific burst was produced by the merger of two neutron stars, a process that typically requires a longer time delay. “Our work suggests that it’s very unlikely that this FRB was produced by a merger,” said Caleb.
Beyond identifying the source, the burst serves as a tool for mapping the universe. As the radio signal traveled to Earth, it interacted with matter and magnetic fields, leaving an imprint on the signal. J. Xavier Prochaska of the University of California, Santa Cruz, described the burst as “almost like a cosmic flashlight.”
The team identified the imprint of two cosmic structures on the signal: a previously unknown galaxy cluster at a redshift of 0.3 (about 3.5 billion light-years from Earth) and the nearby Virgo Cluster, located about 54 million light-years from Earth. These measurements help scientists quantify matter that cannot be seen through optical telescopes.
This discovery confirms that fast radio bursts were being produced when the universe was only one-fifth of its current age. It demonstrates the capability of the JWST to identify faint host galaxies for distant cosmic events. By studying these bursts, astronomers can better understand the distribution of electrically charged matter and magnetic fields across billions of light-years, providing new data on the structure of the universe.
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This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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