Webb has found the origin of the farthest fast radio burst yet!

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) 💥 are mysterious, millisecond-long flashes of radio emission from the distant Universe.

In 2024, astronomers using the MeerKAT telescope spotted an FRB which appeared extremely distant – perhaps more than any other yet discovered.

With help from Webb, the FRB was confirmed to have originated 3 billion years after the Big Bang, in a surprisingly small and young galaxy.

This has implications for the origin of FRBs. They are unlikely to come from the merger of neutron stars (associated with older galaxies) as one theory suggested.

They may, however, come from a type of neutron star known as a magnetar 🧲⭐ which can form in younger galaxies.

Read more: esawebb.org/news/weic2621/