FRBs from dead stars?
Astronomers detect a fast radio burst from a cluster of dead stars
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) collaboration has made an unprecedented discovery.
Known as FRB 20240209A, this repeating signal has been found to originate from a cluster of dead stars orbiting a dead galaxy. FRBs are brief flashes of radio energy in millisecond-long durations typically emanating from galaxies millions of light years away.
Says Professor Kiyoshi Masui, MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, “This is the first of many exciting results that the Outriggers will provide. We’re just getting started with these powerful new telescopes.” The team’s recent discovery was made using CHIME/FRB’s Outrigger telescope located in British Columbia, and is set to upend existing FRB science which until recently theorized that FRBs originate in star-forming galaxies. Vishwangi Shah, a PhD student in the Department of Physics and the Trottler Space Institute and co-author adds, “This is not only the first FRB to be found outside a dead galaxy, but, compared to all other FRBs, it’s also the farthest from the galaxy it’s associated with.”
According to Kaitlyn Shin, a doctoral student at the MIT Kavli Institute, “We suspect the majority of FRBs are born in galaxies that produce lots of young stars, but only one other FRB was associated with a much older stellar environment – a globular cluster. The community has long wondered just how “special” that source really is, or whether there are more of them out there.” Shah echoes Shin’s sentiment, “If confirmed, it would make FRB 20240209A only the second FRB linked to a globular cluster.” This groundbreaking discovery leads astronomers to question the current theory that posits FRBs originate from star-forming galaxies. Tarraneh Eftekhari, co-author and NASA Einstein Fellow at the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics (CIERA) adds, “This discovery challenges our previous understanding of FRBs, and highlights the significant tole that their environments play in unraveling their origins.”
Image credit: CHIME, Andre Renard, Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics, University of Toronto.
Papers
“A Repeating Fast Radio Burst Source in the Outskirts of a Quiescent Galaxy” by Shah et al
“The Massive and Quiescent Elliptical Host Galaxy of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB20240209A” by Eftekhari et al
Press releases
Dead galaxies, live signals: Astronomers uncover a fast radio burst’s surprising location
First fast radio burst traced to old, dead, elliptical galaxy
Astronomers thought they understood fast radio bursts. A recent one calls that into question.