Scientists Detect Radio Signal FRB 20240304B from Early Universe

Exam-focused facts from the 27 May 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

The MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa captured a mysterious radio signal identified as FRB 20240304B on March 4, 2024.
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) traced the signal's origin to a small, clumpy, low-mass dwarf galaxy actively forming stars.
The signal originated during the Cosmic Noon era, roughly 2–3 billion years after the Big Bang, when the universe was approximately 3 billion years old.
Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are short, powerful flashes of radio waves that may originate from magnetars, which are highly magnetised neutron stars.
The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a European radio telescope network, discovered a radio mini-halo surrounding the SpARCS1049 galaxy cluster located about 10 billion light-years away.