fast radio – Astronomers have traced a fleeting radio burst to a galaxy 10 billion years in the past, offering a new window into the early universe.
The signal lasted only a fraction of a second. a fleeting pulse of energy that began its journey long before the Earth existed. Three billion years after the Big Bang. a distant. unknown object erupted in a remote galaxy. sending a blast of radio waves into the void. It traveled through the intergalactic dark for eons until. in March 2024. it finally grazed the dishes of the MeerKAT radio telescope array in South Africa.
For Themiya Nanayakkara, an astronomer at the University of Sydney, capturing the signal was a moment of rare precision. While fast radio bursts (FRBs) are common—flaring up 5. 000 to 10. 000 times daily across the sky—this specific burst carried a signature of extreme age. By measuring the power of the signal and the degree to which its light had been stretched. or “redshifted. ” by the expansion of the universe. Nanayakkara and his team determined the burst originated 10 billion years ago. It stands as the oldest FRB ever recorded, doubling the age of the previous record holder.
Tracing the signal back to its point of origin revealed a galaxy that appears primitive by comparison to its neighbors from that era. It is characterized by lower mass and fewer heavy elements. though it shows higher rates of star formation—conditions potentially suited for the creation of magnetars. the dense stellar remnants often cited as the likely source of such bursts. However, the exact nature of what creates these signals remains one of astronomy’s most persistent mysteries.
This discovery effectively pushes the timeline for FRB activity back through 80 percent of cosmic history. Because these radio waves interact with dark plasma as they traverse the intergalactic medium. they function as high-speed scouts; shorter waves slow down as they encounter this material. allowing astronomers to calculate the density of otherwise invisible matter spread between galaxies.
Nanayakkara is already looking further into the deep past. Having secured observation time on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. his team plans to dedicate one window per year over the next three years to hunt for even more distant signals. As soon as Australian and South African radio arrays detect another candidate. the team will trigger the Webb telescope to analyze the host galaxy in hopes of pushing the cosmic boundary once again.
Each successful detection narrows the search for the elusive engines that drive these outbursts. For now, the 10-billion-year-old signal serves as a reminder that the universe is still whispering secrets from its infancy, waiting for the right technology to listen.
astronomy fast radio burst FRB space MeerKAT James Webb Space Telescope universe science news