Astronomers Trace Fast Radio Burst from Compact Group of Seven Galaxies
Astronomers have used the Hubble Space Telescope to trace a fast radio burst back to a compact group of at least seven galaxies. The intense signal, named FRB 20220610A, was first detected on June 10, 2022, and it traveled 8 billion light-years to reach Earth.
Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are intense, millisecond-long bursts of radio waves with unknown origins. The first FRB was discovered in 2007, and since then, hundreds of these quick, cosmic flashes have been detected coming from distant points across the universe.
This particular fast radio burst lasted less than a millisecond, but it was four times more energetic than previously detected FRBs. The burst released the equivalent of our sun’s energetic emissions over the course of 30 years, according to an initial study published in October.
The observations led scientists to a giant celestial blob, which initially was thought to be a single irregular galaxy or a group of three interacting galaxies. Now, astronomers have used images from the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal that the fast radio burst came from a group of at least seven galaxies that are so close to one another that they could all fit inside the Milky Way galaxy.
The galaxies in the group seem to be interacting and could even be in the process of merging, which might have triggered the fast radio burst, according to the researchers. The findings were presented at the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans.
Nearly 1,000 fast radio bursts have been detected since their initial discovery about two decades ago, but astronomers remain unclear on what causes the bursts. Understanding where fast radio bursts originate from could help astronomers determine more about the underlying cause that sends them streaming across the universe.
As the bursts travel through space for billions of years, they interact with cosmic material. “Radio waves, in particular, are sensitive to any intervening material along the line of sight — from the FRB location to us,” said study co-author Wen-fai Fong.
The discovery of the fast radio burst originating from a compact group of galaxies sheds more light on the mysterious nature of FRBs, and astronomers anticipate increasingly sensitive methods of detecting fast radio bursts in the future that could lead to discovering more of them at greater distances.