NASATelescopes have detected the highest-energy, brightest flood of light. Radiation from outer spaceNever recorded.
About 1.9 billion years ago, a dying star collapsed, exploding in a powerful burst of gamma rays that careened toward Earth. On October 9, they finally washed over the planet. Finally, they washed over our planet on October 9.
NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester).
These telescopes and other observatories around world quickly located the source of radiation. It was a distant object called GRB221009A. It pulsed with the strong glow of its gamma ray emissions.
NASA described it as the most powerful and luminous event that NASA had ever observed. AnnouncementThursday. These images are from the telescopes and show how dramatic it was.
NASA/Swift/B. Cenko
“In our research group we’ve been referring this burst to the ‘BOAT, or Brightest of All Time because when you look at all the bursts that gammaray telescopes have detected since the 1990s then this one stands out,” Jillian Rastinejad (a Northwestern University PhD student) said in a Statement.
NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration
Rastinejad led the group of researchers who made follow-up observations on Friday. More measurements were taken as the gamma Rays continued to flood Earth.
The radiation probably came from a supernova explosion — a dying star collapsing into a black hole. It may be many years before another gamma radiation burst so bright occurs again.
“It’s a very rare event,” Yvette Cedes, an astronomer at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said. MashableIt was also noted that a massive gamma-ray explosion in a galaxy so near to us is “incredibly rare.”
“It’s almost like being in the front row at a fireworks show,” she stated.
Astronomers have the opportunity to gather lots of data from the explosion, which could provide new insight into how stars die and black holes form. It also allows them to study how matter behaves when it’s ejected as a supernova. It helps that the object is relatively close to us, compared to other gamma-ray bursts astronomers have detected.
Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member, stated that proximity “allows you to detect many details which otherwise would be too faint for us to see.” She was the first to communicate about the burst in a NASA press release. Statement. It’s one of the most exciting and energetic bursts I have ever seen, regardless of distance.
