Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most intense and brightest explosions in the cosmos.
This catastrophic explosion generates more energy in ten seconds than the Sun does in ten billion years. GRBs are typically the result of a star’s violent explosion, which gives rise to black holes.
Now, scientists have detected one of the strongest gamma-ray bursts ever, making it a cosmic event that occurs once in 10,000 years.
The most brilliant ever recorded
On October 9, 2022, a massive pulse of gamma-ray radiation blasted across the Planet and multiple space-based detectors. Its official designation was GRB 221009A.
Astronomers immediately resorted to large telescopes to undertake follow-up investigations and pinpoint the origin of the GRBs.
Numerous observations indicated that the brightness of the explosion was nearly seventy times that of anything previously observed. In addition, scientists compared it to information from 7,000 GRBs discovered by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Russian Konus sensor on NASA’s Wind mission.
“GRB 221009A was likely the brightest X-ray and gamma-ray burst since the beginning of human civilisation,” said Eric Burns, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University.
This lead to its being dubbed the “Brightest or Boat of All Time.” Before reaching Earth, the signal from GRB 221009A had traveled roughly 1.9 billion years.
The cause of this explosion
Astronomers categorize burst sources into two groups: short bursts and extended bursts. Short GRBs are created by neutron stars, while extended GRBs result from the formation of black holes.
The duration of this gamma-ray burst exceeded 300 seconds. Hence, it is classed as a GRB with a lengthy duration. Scientists speculate that this explosion may be the “birth scream of a black hole.”
The formation of a black hole is a violent cosmic occurrence. During this process, the freshly generated black hole emits intense plasma jets traveling at the speed of light.
Nevertheless, what led it to be so brilliant? According to experts, this GRB was emitted by a jet with a rather small angle. As a result, the particles in this jet were guided toward the Earth with a relatively narrow beam. This astonishing explosion was so brilliant that it blinded the majority of gamma-ray sensors.
This discovery increases our knowledge of the genesis of these incredibly strong explosions in space. Further observations will be conducted using the James Webb and Hubble Space Telescopes.