Hubble Telescope finds surprising source of brightest fast radio burst ever
By Tereza Pultarova published about 6 hours ago
The FRB flashed farther away from Earth than any other previously observed.
The source region of the fast radio burst detected on June 10, 2022, through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, Alexa Gordon (Northwestern))
The brightest fast radio burst ever observed emerged from a group of ancient galaxies that appear to be merging, observations by the Hubble Space Telescope have revealed. The finding surprised astronomers, as the vast majority of known fast radio bursts (FRBs) has come from single galaxies much closer to Earth.
The FRB in question brightened the radio sky above Earth on June 10, 2022, and was first detected by the Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder radio telescope in Western Australia.
FRBs are not rare; sensitive radio telescopes all around the world detect them almost daily. These brief explosions of cosmic radio waves last only a fraction of a second but can briefly outshine the radio output of an entire galaxy.
The fast radio burst of June 10, 2022, however, was in a league of its own. Subsequent observations by the Very Large Telescope in Chile suggested that the FRB came from very far away and packed four times more energy than other previously observed FRBs.
More:
https://www.space.com/hubble-telescope-finds-source-brightest-fast-radio-burst
