Among the strangest signals that astronomers can detect emerging from deep space are fast radio bursts, mysterious bursts of energy that last only milliseconds, but whose origins remain unknown.

Now astronomers have detected and traced a fast radio burst that has been travelling across the Universe for 10 billion years before reaching Earth.

This flash of radio waves originated when the Universe was only 3 billion years old, making it the most distant fast radio burst ever detected.

More strange signals

Detecting the strange signal
The burst was detected by Dr Manisha Caleb and Dr Themiya Nanayakkara from the University of Sydney, Australia.

The team used the South African MeerKAT radio telescope to make the discovery as part of the MeerTRAP project, which searches for ‘transient phenomena’ in space like fast radio bursts.

They were then able to use the James Webb Space Telescope to link the burst, designated FRB 20240304B, to its host galaxy.

The Universe is thought to be 13.8 billion years old and this fast radio burst originated just 3 billion years after the Big Bang.

It’s the most distant fast radio burst ever detected.

The team say it will give them a new way to study the evolution of galaxies and decipher the invisible matter that fills the space between them.

“This is an extraordinary glimpse into the distant Universe,” says Dr Caleb from the Sydney Institute for Astronomy in the School of Physics.

“We have caught a fast radio burst from a time when the Universe was only about 3 billion years old, and we have used that brief flash of radio light to learn about the matter it has travelled through over billions of years.”

Read More: Scientists have detected a strange signal that took 10 billion years to reach Earth.