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Strange flashes from ancient galaxy deepen mystery of fast radio bursts

Unusual detection bolsters evidence that the mysterious signals can be caused by different astrophysical events.
By
  1. Elizabeth Gibney

Astronomers have traced the origin of a fast radio burst (FRB) to the edge of an ancient galaxy — suggesting that these mysterious, millisecond-long flashes of energy are even weirder than previously thought.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-00233-w

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 31 January 2025: An earlier version of this article stated that 20240209A was the first FRB to be localised by CHIME’s Outriggers. It is in fact the first repeating FRB to be seen by these observatories.

References

  1. Shah, V. et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. 979, L21 (2025).

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  2. Eftekhari, T. et al. Astrophys. J. Lett. 979, L22 (2025).

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  3. Kirsten, F. et al. Nature 602, 585–589 (2022).

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