May 23, 2021

The likely galaxies where the origins of fast radio bursts cataloged as FRB 190714 (top) and FRB 180924 (bottom) was located

An article to be published in “The Astrophysical Journal” reports the location of the origin of eight fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected between 2017 and 2020. A team of researchers coordinated by the University of California at Santa Cruz used the Hubble Space Telescope to accomplish this task by applying a method already used to pinpoint the origin of other cosmic phenomena such as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts. This result offers new information on an extremely energetic phenomenon such as fast radio bursts, which emit an amount of energy in a millisecond comparable to the amount the Sun emits in a year. The results of this study are compatible with the theory that links them to magnetars.