Scientists have just witnessed one of the most powerful cosmic explosions ever
Scientists have detected an extraordinarily powerful burst of cosmic radiation — known as a gamma-ray burst — that likely occurred when a massive star died and transformed into a supermassive black hole.
Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) are among the most powerful cosmic explosions to light up the universe since the Big Bang event is thought to have created it. Astronomers believe that most GRBs occur when a truly massive star collapses inward toward the end of its life, its core running out of material to sustain nuclear fusion reactions.
This heralds the spectacular explosion A black hole is bornAt which point the newly formed singularity blasts out jets of gamma radiation that travel at close to the speed of light, burning a million trillion times (yes, A million trillion) is brighter than the Sun. An outflow of X-ray radiation is also released as the fast-moving jets collide with the gas cloud ejected by the dying star.
On Sunday, October 9, detectors aboard NASA’s fleet of orbital spacecraft were triggered when a powerful wave of gamma rays and X-rays flooded through the solar system, signaling an extraordinarily powerful gamma-ray burst.
After the initial detection of the event – designated GRB 221009A – astronomers around the world raced to train a multitude of the world’s most powerful telescopes on the burst. Various orbital spacecraft, including NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, have also joined the effort.
Together, the keen robotic eye was able to capture the burst’s evolving light signature over optical, infrared, gamma and X-ray wavelengths. The signal originated in the Sagitta star, about 2.4 billion light-years from Earth, and lasted a few hundred seconds. According to these preliminary observations, GRB 221009A is the brightest GRB recorded since the dawn of time. scienceA factor of 10 is as likely as possible.
Image of GRB 221009A’s afterglow as captured by the Swift X-ray Telescope (Credit: NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester))
“Given that most other long GRBs result from the collapse of a massive star, we have every reason to believe that we will find direct evidence of a supernova,” explains Ph.D. Student Jillian Rastinejad Northwestern University, Illinois, who helped image the event. “But it will take more work and time to confirm, and the universe can always surprise us.”
However, there is a clock on the scientific community’s monitoring of GRB 221009A – because in a little over a month the gamma-ray source will be temporarily obscured by our Sun’s glare.
When it becomes visible once again early next year, astronomers will begin work to unravel the mysteries of how such a powerful burst of light came to be.
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Anthony Wood is a freelance science writer for IGN
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