Astronomers discover repeating radio bursts from distant 'dead' galaxy
Astronomers have detected fast-repeating radio bursts from a distant "dead" galaxy that should not contain the energy to produce these types of signals, according to new research.
The source of the fast radio bursts (FRBs) -- sudden flashes of radio waves that last just milliseconds -- has previously been linked to young, magnetized neutron stars that expend a lot of energy when they are forming. But the dormant galaxy from which these radio bursts are originating should not contain this type of young star, according to a paper published Wednesday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Researchers expect FRBs to originate inside of a galaxy and, because these FRBs are so energetic, within a region of a galaxy in which new stars are actively forming, Vishwangi Shah, a PhD student in the Department of Physics and the Trottier Space Institute at McGill University, told ABC News. These FRBs, named FRB 20240209A, are located outside of the massive ancient elliptical galaxy it is associated with that only contains old and dead stars, Shah said.
"This discovery was really surprising and exciting," she said.
Shah and her team used the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment -- also known as the CHIME telescope -- to detect the multiple bursts from the same location, Shah said. But because the CHIME telescope could not pinpoint the exact location of the radio waves, they combined it with a smaller CHIME-like telescope to pinpoint the location of the FRB. They then used the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to image the region around the location of the FRBs.
The Gemini image confirmed that there is no other galaxy present near the FRB and the FRB is indeed associated with the dead galaxy.
"There's no other galaxy there," Shah said.
The ancient elliptical galaxy where astronomers discovered the radio waves is about 2 billion light-years from Earth and is about 11.3 billion years old, according to the paper.
Thousands of radio bursts have been recorded since 2007, when they were first discovered by astronomers, Shah said, adding that they only know the precise locations of about 100 of them -- almost all near actively forming stars.
"This particular FRB is really an outlier, and it challenges our theories about what is producing FRBs," Shah said.
Astronomers hypothesize that the FRBs could be originating from two supernova remnants, called neutron stars, that are merging or collapsing onto themselves, Shah said.
Continuing to study these FRBs will allow researchers to further understand the space between its origination and the Milky Way as well as what is happening in distant regions of space, Shah said.
"That is why it is a really useful probe of our universe," she said.
