The event was off-center from the galaxy's nucleus

ASKAP J005512.2-255834 showed up in a small, star-forming galaxy over 1.7 billion light-years away, but it was offset from the galaxy nucleus, i.e., off-nuclear — a location more consistent with GRB-like events and distinct from nuclear TDEs.
Even after lots of searching, scientists couldn't find any matching signals in infrared, optical, or X-ray — just this odd radio glow.

It could be a gamma-ray burst or tidal disruption event

Researchers think it might be the afterglow of a long gamma-ray burst from a collapsing star or maybe even the result of a black hole tearing apart a star off to the side of its galaxy, both super rare scenarios.