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X marks the spot for fast radio bursts

Fast radio bursts are enigmatic astronomical signals that originate from deep in extragalactic space. Observations using an array of radio telescopes have identified a likely host galaxy for one of these signals.
  1. Jason Hessels

    1. Jason Hessels is at ASTRON (the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy) and the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy, University of Amsterdam, 1098XH Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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In 2007, astronomers detected a flash of radio waves that was much shorter in duration than the blink of an eye1. Such signals, now called fast radio bursts (FRBs), are thought to have been produced billions of years ago in distant galaxies2. If so, the sources of FRBs must be spectacularly energetic and, quite possibly, unlike anything that has ever been observed in our Galaxy. Pinpointing the galaxies that host FRBs is the key to unlocking the mysterious origins of these signals. Writing in Nature, Ravi et al.3 report the discovery of the likely host galaxy of an FRB that travelled for 6 billion years before reaching Earth. The properties of this galaxy suggest that active star formation is not essential for making an FRB source.

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Nature 572, 320-321 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-02400-2

References

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