Space & Astronomy

Mystery as anomalous deep space signals traced to long-dead galaxy

By T.K. Randall
February 21, 2025

Image: Short Gamma-Ray Burst
Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva / M. Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab) / CC BY 4.0 (adapted) Astronomers have been attempting to get to the bottom of a galactic mystery that seems to transcend our understanding of the cosmos and it is all to do with mysterious cosmic eruptions that appear to be originating in a galaxy that shouldn't be able to produce anything like them.

Typically known as fast radio bursts, these intense flashes last mere milliseconds yet can generate as much energy as the Sun does in an entire day.

Astronomers have seen them elsewhere in the cosmos, but these particular examples - which seem to trace back to a galaxy that has been dead for 11 billion years - pose a rather perplexing mystery.

It is believed that fast radio bursts accompany supernova explosions, but these are usually only found in relatively young galaxies where stars are still being formed.

"Of the thousands of FRBs discovered to date, only about a hundred have been pinpointed to their host galaxies," study co-author Tarraneh Eftekhari told Live Science."And those galaxies tend to have a lot of star formation, which means more stars are going supernova."

So how is it that these particular bursts could have originated from a galaxy that is long dead ?

"This observation from a very dead galaxy tells us that there needs to be some other way for an FRB to be produced," said Eftekhari.

"This discovery goes against the nicer picture we've had of FRBs so far."

So what could be responsible ?

As things stand, the answer remains a complete mystery.

Source: Live Science

Tags: Galaxy