Fast Radio Burst Discovered in Outskirts of Ancient, Dead Galaxy

New findings challenge prevailing theories by tracing a repeating FRB to an 11.3-billion-year-old elliptical galaxy, far from star-forming regions.

Astronomers traced FRB 20240209A to the outskirts of an ancient elliptical galaxy located 2 billion light-years from Earth.
The galaxy, 11.3 billion years old and no longer forming stars, is the oldest and most massive FRB host galaxy identified to date.
This FRB is the most distant from the center of its host galaxy ever observed, located approximately 130,000 light-years from the galaxy's core.
The discovery raises questions about how such energetic events can occur in regions devoid of young stars, with researchers suggesting a possible origin in a globular cluster of old stars.
The findings challenge the dominant theory that FRBs originate from young magnetars formed in star-forming galaxies, suggesting more diverse formation pathways.