A flash from the young universe: MeerKAT helps pinpoint the most distant fast radio burst yet
South Africa's MeerKAT telescope detected a millisecond flash that travelled for more than 10 billion years, and NASA's Webb telescope found its small home galaxy. The work also shows what the bigger SKA-Mid array, now being built around MeerKAT, is being made to do.
Key points
- MeerKAT detected fast radio burst FRB 20240304B on 4 March 2024.
- Webb measured its host galaxy at a redshift of 2.148 - the burst left when the universe was 3 billion years old.
- MeerKAT's 64 dishes will be folded into SKA-Mid, which will have 197 dishes when complete.
- Where fast radio bursts come from is still not settled - a young magnetar is the leading idea for this one.
What happened
In the dry Karoo of South Africa's Northern Cape, 64 white dishes work together as one telescope called MeerKAT. It listens to radio waves from space that our eyes cannot see. One of the things it catches is fast radio bursts - flashes that last only a few milliseconds but can travel across most of the universe before they reach us.
MeerKAT is also a stepping stone. A much larger telescope, SKA-Mid, is being built on the same site by the SKA Observatory, and MeerKAT's dishes will become part of it. So each MeerKAT discovery is both a result in its own right and a test of what the bigger machine should be able to do.
Claim by claim
Why this label: Stated by SARAO, the observatory that built and operates MeerKAT.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: The burst's name records its detection date, as SARAO explains.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: SARAO says this more than doubles the previous distance record for a fast radio burst.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: This is the research team's best reading, not a settled fact. SARAO is clear that the origin of fast radio bursts remains uncertain, especially as most are seen only once.
On the ladder: the evidence so far sits low — early, single or social sources. We publish the claim as a claim, never as fact.
Why this label: SKAO also reports that SKA-Mid had seven dish structures assembled on site, with a further 12 on their way, at the time of its first-fringes announcement.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
Why this label: SKAO describes first fringes as the first true test that the telescope's systems work together as one instrument.
On the ladder: a claim earns Verified from primary evidence, or from two independent sources that do not copy each other.
What we know / what we don't know yet
What we know
- MeerKAT can locate a millisecond burst precisely enough for Webb to find its home galaxy.
- This burst's host galaxy is unusually small - SARAO says 1000 times less massive than expected for a burst host.
- SKA-Mid is being built on the MeerKAT site and will absorb MeerKAT's 64 dishes into a 197-dish array.
What we don't know yet
- What exactly produces fast radio bursts - the magnetar idea fits this case, but it is not proven.
- How many even more distant bursts SKA-Mid will find once the full array is working.
Why it matters
A telescope built and run in South Africa is setting world records in one of astronomy's newest puzzles, and it is doing so before its bigger successor is even finished. That matters for African science: the skills, engineers and students built around MeerKAT are the same ones SKA-Mid will depend on.
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