Scientists have detected a powerful radio signal coming from a dead galaxy billions of light years away. This discovery brings into question the secrets of the universe again.
Astronomers have detected a fast radio burst (FRB) coming from a dead galaxy that completed star formation billions of years ago. While these powerful bursts of energy generally originate from star-forming regions, these of the signal The fact that it came from a dead galaxy caused astonishment in the scientific world. This signal, called FRB 20240209A, came from a region approximately 130 thousand light-years away from the center of the galaxy. This region is known as a place where only stars that have completed their life cycle are found.
Source of the Signal and Scientific Curiosity
Fast radio bursts usually occur in milliseconds, but the energy they emit is more than the energy produced by the Sun in a year. Astronomers think such signals often originate from neutron stars with extremely intense magnetic fields, known as magnetars. However, this theory has been questioned in this case due to the lack of young stars to support magnetar formation in dead galaxies.
“FRBs were thought to generally occur in star-forming regions,” said astronomer Vishwangi Shah of McGill University. “However, the detection of this signal in a region where star formation does not occur raises new questions about how such events occur.”
This discovery is not the first radio burst from a dead galaxy. In 2022, a similar signal was detected from the outer regions of the Messier 81 galaxy. That signal came from a globular cluster where stars are densely packed together. Scientists think that FRB 20240209A may originate from a similar star cluster. To test this assumption, it is planned to examine the region where the signal comes from in more detail using the James Webb Space Telescope.
Such discoveries offer new opportunities to understand previously unknown dynamics of the universe. These surprising bursts of energy in dead galaxies are prompting scientists to conduct deeper research into the origins of fast radio bursts. If the mechanism of these events can be unraveled, it may be possible to learn more about physical processes in the farthest corners of the universe.