Space & Astronomy

Distant radio burst from ancient galaxy is oldest ever detected

By T.K. Randall
October 9, 2026

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) Fast radio bursts, which last mere milliseconds yet can reach a brightness equivalent to that of an entire galaxy, have long remained something of an astronomical enigma since their discovery almost 20 years ago.

While some speculated that these bursts could be an attempt by a distant extraterrestrial civilization to communicate across the cosmos, astronomers quickly determined that the most likely source of these signals were neutron stars - the extremely dense remnants of supernova explosions which typically rotate tens of thousands of times per minute.

Now, in a new study, researchers have succeeded in tracing one such burst - known as FRB 20240304B - back to a distant galaxy in the early universe.

The burst was produced when the universe was only 3 billion years old, meaning that during its journey across the cosmos it has traveled through "approximately 80% of cosmic history."This makes it the oldest and most distant fast radio burst ever detected - in fact it originated more than twice as far away as the previous record holder.

To put this into perspective, when the burst first occurred, our solar system didn't even exist yet.

It is thought that fast radio bursts may have been quite common in the earliest days of the universe.

"Whatever the mechanism that causes this radio burst has to account for that fact that it can be produced in... very young galaxies with very low amount of metals," said study co-author Dr Themiya Nanayakkara of the University of Sydney.

Source: The Guardian

Tags: Fast Radio Burst