The source of the newly detected fast radio burst, FRB 20240209A, is located 2 billion light-years from Earth, on the remote outskirts of an ancient elliptical galaxy with a mass of more than 100 billion solar masses. The remnants of young stars that theorists believe would generate such bursts of radio waves should have long died out in this 11.3 billion-year-old galaxy are detailed in two supplementary studies. Astrophysics Journal Letter this discovery shatters the assumption that fast radio bursts emanate only from regions of active star formation.
Gemini image showing the host galaxy (cyan crosshair) and local ellipse of FRB 20240209A. Image credit: Shah others., doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc.
“The conventional wisdom is that fast radio bursts (FRBs) originate from magnetars formed by collapsing supernovae,” said Taraneh Eftekari, an astronomer at Northwestern University.
“That doesn’t seem to be the case here. Young, massive stars die out as core-collapse supernovae, but we see no evidence of young stars in this galaxy.”
“Thanks to this new discovery, it is becoming clear that not all Feds are born from young stars.”
“Perhaps there is a subpopulation of FRBs associated with older systems.”
“This new FRB shows that just when we think we understand an astrophysical phenomenon, the universe can turn around and surprise us,” added Wen-Fai Feng, an astronomer at Northwestern University. Ta.
“This ‘dialogue’ with the universe is what makes our field of time-domain astronomy so incredibly thrilling.”
FRB 20240209A was discovered by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) in February 2024.
FRBs are short, powerful bursts of radio waves that flare up and disappear within milliseconds, producing more energy in one quick burst than the sun emits in a year.
However, FRB 20240209A flared up multiple times. During the first burst from February to July 2024, the same source produced 21 additional pulses.
After the research team located the FRB, astronomers quickly used telescopes at W.M. Keck and Gemini Observatories to study the environment surrounding the event.
Surprisingly, rather than discovering young galaxies, these observations revealed that the FRB’s origin lies 2 billion light-years from Earth, at the edge of a neighboring galaxy 11.3 billion years ago.
To learn more about this unusual host galaxy, the researchers used high-performance computers to run simulations.
They discovered that this galaxy is extremely bright and incredibly huge – 100 billion times the mass of our Sun.
“This appears to be the most massive FRB host galaxy ever. It’s one of the most massive galaxies out there,” Dr. Eftekari said.
Although most FRBs occur inside galaxies, the authors tracked FRB 20240209A to the outskirts of its homeworld, 130,000 light-years away from the galaxy’s center, where there are few other stars.
“Of all the FRB populations, this FRB is the furthest from the center of its host galaxy,” said Vishwangi Shah, a graduate student at McGill University.
“This is both surprising and interesting because FRBs are expected to occur inside galaxies, often in star-forming regions.”
“The location of this FRB so far outside its host galaxy raises the question of how such an energetic event could occur in a region where new stars are not forming.”
According to the research team, FRB 20240209A likely originated within a dense globular cluster.
Such clusters are promising sites for magnetars that may have formed through other mechanisms, such as the merger of two neutron stars or the collapse of a white dwarf star under its own gravity, or in conjunction with older stars.
“The globular cluster origin of this repeating FRB is the most likely scenario explaining why this FRB is located outside of its host galaxy,” Shah said.
“Although we do not know for a fact whether there is a globular cluster at the FRB’s location, we have submitted a proposal to use NASA/ESA/CSA’s James Webb Space Telescope for follow-up observations of the FRB’s location.”
“If so, this FRB would be only the second FRB known to exist within a globular cluster. If not, consider other exotic scenarios for the origin of FRBs. You will need to.”
“It’s clear that there is still a lot of interesting discovery to be made about the Fed, and that its environment may hold the key to unlocking its secrets,” Dr. Eftekari said.
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T. Eftekari others. 2025. A huge, stationary elliptical main galaxy that repeats high-speed radio bursts FRB 20240209A. APJL in press. arXiv: 2410.23336
Vishwangi Shah others. 2025. A source of high-speed radio bursts that repeat on the outskirts of a quiet galaxy. APJL 979, L21; doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ad9ddc
Source: www.sci.news
