22 unexplained radio signals caught from 'stellar graveyard'

CHIME, a radio telescope array located in British Columbia, Canada, has picked up 22 strange signals called fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are fast and explosive radio signals that can travel great distances in intergalactic space.

The 22 FRBs mentioned above originated from a single, and most unlikely, place: an 11-billion-year-old "stellar graveyard."

The Milky Way (left) is placed next to a dead galaxy similar to the one that emitted the strange signals - Photo: NASA/ESA

According to Live Science, a "stellar cemetery" is how scientists describe a galaxy that has died, meaning it has stopped forming stars long ago.

Unlike the Milky Way, these galaxies are usually quiet and faint. And no current astronomical theory can explain why they emit FRB signals.

FRBs are thought to accompany supernova explosions, signaling the death of massive stars.

So they must come from places where stars are still forming and dying, that is, young, vibrant galaxies with enough gas and dust to fuel the birth of stars.

But the 22 signals CHIME picked up clearly came from the outskirts of a long-dead galaxy, in what scientists describe as its "rising from the grave" behavior.

"The observations tell us that there must be some other way to create FRBs. This discovery contradicts the picture we have of FRBs so far," said Dr. Tarraneh Eftekhari from Northwestern University (USA), co-author of two studies on the series of strange signals.

Marvin Fry

Update 23 February 2025