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Astronomers detect most distant fast radio burst, travelling 10 billion years to reach Earth
Astronomers have recorded what they believe is the most distant fast radio burst ever detected, a flash of radio waves that travelled for more than 10 billion years before reaching Earth. The burst, FRB 20240304B, originated when the universe was about 3 billion years old.
By Haut Monde Post
• October 8, 2026
• 3 Min Read
A flash older than the solar system
A burst of radio waves has travelled for more than 10 billion years before reaching Earth, and researchers believe it is the most distant fast radio burst (FRB) ever recorded. The new study, published in Science, reports that the flash began when the universe was only about 3 billion years old, meaning it spent approximately 80% of cosmic history in transit.
FRBs are intense radio-wave bursts that can emit as much energy in milliseconds as the sun does in months or years. Since they were first discovered in 2007 they have puzzled scientists, with speculation from some that they could have an alien origin; more than 10,000 FRBs have been detected since then. The new burst, designated FRB 20240304B, is believed to be more than double the previous distance record.
Dr Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney, a lead researcher, said that when the burst was produced "there was no Earth, there was no sun".
How the burst was found
The burst was detected using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa, and its host galaxy was subsequently identified using Nasa's James Webb space telescope.
- •MeerKAT picked up the radio flash
- •The James Webb space telescope then traced the burst to its home galaxy
- •JWST data indicate the source is a "young, very small galaxy which is forming stars at a very high speed, with not many metals around it", according to the researchers
What could cause such bursts
One theory is that FRBs originate from magnetars, neutron stars with a very powerful magnetic field. Nanayakkara said any mechanism causing the burst has to account for the fact that it can be produced in very young galaxies with very low amounts of metals.
It is also unclear what the burst's history of repetition looks like. Some FRBs repeat continuously, some repeat for a while and then stop, and some are seen only once. Whether the new distant burst is a one-off flash or will yield recurrent signals remains to be seen.
Using FRBs to weigh the universe
FRBs are affected by the particles they travel through, enabling scientists to quantify matter that cannot be seen with optical telescopes. Nanayakkara noted the burst "has been travelling for 80% of the age of the universe" and said further detections of distant FRBs would enable scientists to map unseen matter in the distant universe.
Dr Sara Webb of Swinburne University, who was not involved in the research, said FRBs can be used as a line-of-sight count of the matter they passed through to reach Earth, and that the discovery suggests FRBs might have been very common in the early universe.
Prof Matthew Bailes of Swinburne University, who was among the discoverers of FRBs, called the paper "a validation of how powerful the FRBs are for probing the universe". He described them as "a very fundamental way of counting how many atoms there are in the universe".
"the fun thing about FRBs is that we don't need to know what is causing them to do some of the science"
The words are Nanayakkara's, offered about the research his team is now carrying out.
