Hubble telescope photographs home of farthest fast radio burst

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have found the home of FRB 20220610A - the farthest and most powerful Fast Radio Burst (FRB) detected to date.

FRBs are intense bursts of radiation that can outshine an entire galaxy. While hundreds of FRBs have been detected to date, the sources behind them remain uncertain.

What makes FRB 20220610A weird is that it flashed in an unlikely place - a collection of galaxies that existed when the Universe was only 5 billion years old. Hubble's sharp images suggest there may be as many as seven galaxies that may be in the process of merging, which would also be very significant, say researchers. Such groups of galaxies are rare, and it's possible this led to the conditions that triggered the FRB.

"It required Hubble's keen sharpness and sensitivity to pinpoint exactly where the FRB came from. Without Hubble's imaging, it would still remain a mystery as to whether this was originating from one monolithic galaxy or from some type of interacting system. It's these types of environments – these weird ones – that are driving us toward better understanding the mystery of FRBs," said lead author Alexa Gordon of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

✨ Astronomers using the NASA/ESA @HUBBLE_space Telescope have found a rare oddball event in an strange place.A Fast Radio Burst is a fleeting blast of energy that can – for a few milliseconds – outshine an entire galaxy, can you spot it?🔗 https://t.co/VMj999N39k pic.twitter.com/Zid5RKDgb3

— ESA (@esa) January 9, 2024

FRB 20220610A was initially detected on June 10, 2022, by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope located in Western Australia. Further confirmation of its distant origin was provided by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) situated in Chile. This particular FRB is four times more energetic than the ones that are closer to us.

Astronomers are hopeful that more Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) will be detected at these distances in the near future, and Hubble will play a crucial role in characterizing the environments in which these FRBs occur.