The source of the newly-detected fast radio burst, FRB 20240209A, is in the distant outskirts of an ancient elliptical galaxy, which is located 2 billion light-years from Earth and has a mass of more than 100 billion solar masses. Young stellar remnants that theorists think produce such bursts of radio waves should have disappeared long ago in this 11.3-billion-year-old galaxy. Detailed in two complementary studies in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, the discovery shatters assumptions that fast radio bursts solely emanate from regions of active star formation.
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
Login if you have purchased