Astronomers spot mysterious gamma-ray explosion, unlike any detected before
Credit: ESO/A. Levan, A. Martin-Carrillo et al.
Astronomers have detected an explosion of gamma rays that repeated several times over the course of a day, an event unlike anything ever witnessed before. The source of the powerful radiation was discovered to be outside our galaxy, its location pinpointed by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the Universe, normally caused by the catastrophic destruction of stars. But no known scenario can completely explain this new GRB, whose true nature remains a mystery.
https://x.com/konstructivizm/status/1965688287089053949
Astronomers have stumbled upon a cosmic event that defies decades of astrophysical understanding: a gamma-ray burst (GRB) unlike any observed in 50 years.
Designated GRB 250702B, this enigmatic explosion was picked up on 2 July by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, not as a single, fleeting flash, but as three distinct bursts cascading over several hours.
Peering back through archival data, scientists even traced the burst’s faint echoes to nearly a full day earlier, captured by the Einstein Probe.
Notably, gamma-ray bursts are typically catastrophic, one-off events that last only milliseconds to minutes, yet this one was both prolonged and repeating, stretching across almost an entire day, 100 to 1,000 times longer than usual.
At first, the dense backdrop of the Milky Way’s stellar field led researchers to suspect a local source. However, observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) using its HAWK-I infrared camera overturned that assumption: the source lies beyond our galaxy.
Hubble later confirmed that this burst originated in another galaxy still billions of light-years away, rendering the explosion immensely powerful .
Despite its extraordinary nature, the burst’s origins remain a cosmic puzzle. One hypothesis suggests a massive star collapsing in an unprecedented way, since such a collapse usually produces only a very brief burst. Alternatively, the explosion might stem from a star being torn apart by a black hole, though the length and characteristics of the gamma-ray emissions would require highly unusual circumstances.
👉
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/1...I-NbM5Ph7lGyPw
https://x.com/ExploreCosmos_/status/1965397724246806982
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful events in the universe, emitting more energy than the Sun's 10-billion-year lifespan. They are categorized as long (several seconds to minutes) and short (milliseconds to 2 seconds).
Long GRBs result from massive stars collapsing into black holes, forming particle jets near light speed, while short GRBs stem from mergers of neutron stars or black holes, also creating jets. Both produce afterglows across the spectrum and, in the case of short GRBs, gravitational waves.
Detected GRBs originate over 100 million light-years away, outshining the gamma-ray universe briefly.
Day Long Repeating Gamma Ray Burst From Beyond The Milky Way
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks