The space telescope has helped trace FRB 20240304B to its host galaxy. The burst occurred when the universe was about three billion years old.
South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope detected the radio signal on 4 March 2024. Webb observations have now identified its host galaxy and measured a redshift of 2.148. NASA reported the findings on 8 October.
Fast radio bursts last only milliseconds. This one originated in a small galaxy with active star formation.
The galaxy’s properties support a magnetar, a neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field, as a possible source. The explanation remains a hypothesis: the individual object that produced the signal has not been identified.
