Overview
- The burst known as FRB 20240304B was recorded by the MeerTRAP survey with the MeerKAT radio telescope and was later linked to a host galaxy using the James Webb Space Telescope.
- Analysis published in Science on 8 October 2026 places the host at redshift z≈2.148, meaning the signal left its galaxy when the universe was about three billion years old.
- The host is a tiny, metal-poor dwarf that is actively forming stars, a finding that favors a young, highly magnetized neutron star called a magnetar as the likely source of this FRB.
- FRB 20240304B showed an unusually large dispersion measure of about 2,400, which both indicated its long travel time and carries imprints of ionized gas and magnetic fields encountered en route.
- Team members have secured multi-year JWST follow-up time and plan coordinated MeerKAT detections to build a larger high-redshift FRB sample for mapping the cosmic web and studying FRB origins over cosmic time.