Scientists have detected a 10-second signal that appears to come from one of the most distant points in the universe.
Two Earth satellites have confirmed that the mysterious signal came from a point 13 billion light-years away, most likely from an explosive supernova when the universe was only 730 million years old, writes the Daily Mail.
The farther something is in space, the longer it takes for the light (or signal) to reach us. So, when people observe an explosion or a very distant star, we are actually looking at what happened there billions of years ago, as in a time machine that shows us the past, the publication also notes.
In this case, scientists believe that this burst of high-energy gamma rays, dubbed GRB 250314A, came from the oldest supernova ever recorded, from the dawn of time.
Gamma rays are invisible and extremely powerful forms of light. They represent the most energetic source of radiation known in the universe, being produced by massive stellar explosions, appearing as extremely bright sparks observable from Earth.
Researchers still don’t understand why this ancient supernova from the early universe looks almost identical to exploding stars seen in the nearby, modern universe.
If this explosion is the true source of the signal, scientists at NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) expect the first stars to have been bigger, hotter, and produced much more violent explosions than the mysterious signal suggests.
Andrew Levan, lead author of a recent study on the signal, from Radboud University in the Netherlands, said: “In the last 50 years, only a few gamma-ray bursts have been detected in the first billion years of the universe. This event is very rare and extremely interesting.”
The signal was first discovered on March 14, 2025, when the Space Variable Objects Monitor (SVOM) satellite recorded it as a sudden burst of high-energy light from deep space. But two recent studies on the possible source of this distant signal have just been published.
The signal recorded by the researchers was a short powerful wave of gamma rays, invisible waves of energy more powerful than X-rays, capable of passing through the human body and affecting cells, DNA and tissues. But because this explosion occurred 13 billion light-years away, the gamma rays that reached Earth were far too weak to pose a danger to humans.
The wave only lasted about 10 seconds, because gamma-ray bursts are like fast fireworks in space, releasing a huge amount of energy in a very short time before fading. Unlike the constant and faint random noise or background static in space, these gamma-ray bursts stand out as extremely bright and focused beams with a unique pattern that human satellites have been designed to recognize.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) confirmed the discovery about three and a half months later, in the summer of 2025, with detailed images and measurements of the glow left over from the explosion, which could still be seen in space.
“Only Webb could directly demonstrate that this light came from a supernova—a massive collapsing star”Professor Levan added in a NASA statement.
