A brilliant fast radio burst pinpointed by CHIME Outriggers with 13 parsec accuracy

By volumetric rate, fast radio bursts outnumber even core-collapse supernovae; yet the nature of the sources (“progenitors”) which emit the bursts remains unknown. I will discuss the discovery, precise VLBI localization, and OIR follow up of the luminous yet nearby source FRB 20250316A: a major advance toward understanding the natal environments and thus the progenitors of FRBs. I will then briefly discuss the implications of this discovery for FRBs as probes of the invisible circumgalactic medium in ordinary galaxies and recent observational progress in this area using the CAMELS simulations.