The blob-like home of the farthest-known fast radio burst is a collection of seven galaxies, new research suggests.
In 2022, astronomers detected the most powerful fast radio burst (FRB) ever observed.
It came from a location dating halfway back to the big bang and is also the farthest known FRB seen to date.
Without the Hubble’s imaging, it would still remain a mystery as to whether this FRB originated from one monolithic galaxy or from some type of interacting system— Alexa Gordon, Northwestern University
Astronomers led by Northwestern University in the US have pinpointed the object’s birthplace.
Using images from Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope, the researchers traced the FRB – dubbed 20220610A – back to not one galaxy but a group of at least seven.
According to their findings, the galaxies in the collection appear to be interacting with each other – and may even be on the path to a merger.
Such groups of galaxies are rare and possibly led to conditions that triggered the FRB.
Experts suggest the findings might challenge scientific models of how FRBs are made and what makes them.
Northwestern’s Alexa Gordon, who led the study, said: “Without the Hubble’s imaging, it would still remain a mystery as to whether this FRB originated from one monolithic galaxy or from some type of interacting system.
“It’s these types of environments – these weird ones – that drive us toward a better understanding of the mystery of FRBs.”
FRBs are brief, powerful radio blasts that flare up and disappear within milliseconds and generate more energy in one quick burst than our sun emits in a year.
FRB 20220610A was even more extreme than its predecessors.
Not only was it four times more energetic than closer FRBs, it also clocked in as the most distant FRB discovered.
When it originated, the universe was five billion years old. It is now about 13.7 billion years old.
Early observations suggested the burst appeared to have originated near an unidentifiable, formless blob, which astronomers initially thought was either a single, irregular galaxy or a group of three distant galaxies.
But Hubble’s sharp images now suggest the blob might be as least as many as seven galaxies in incredibly close proximity to one another.
Astronomers say they are so close to each other that they could all fit inside our Milky Way.
Study co-author Wen-fai Fong, an associate professor of physics and astronomy, said: “There are some signs that the group members are interacting.
“In other words, they could be trading materials or possibly on a path to merging.
“These groups of galaxies (called compact groups) are incredibly rare environments in the universe and are the densest galaxy-scale structures we know of.”
Although scientists have uncovered up to 1,000 FRBs since first discovering them in 2007, the sources behind them remain uncertain.
The research was presented during the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans, Louisiana.
