The Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Recorded Rattled Earth& rsquo s Atmosphere Universe HEAD TOPICS

The Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Recorded Rattled Earth& rsquo s Atmosphere

10/21/2022 2:10:00 PM

The death of a massive star far across the universe affected lightning on our planet and could teach us about the Milky Way

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Scientific American

The death of a massive star far across the universe affected lightning on our planet and could teach us about the Milky Way The death of a massive star far across the universe affected lightning on our planet and could teach us about the Milky Way To astronomers, “close” means something different. This one was so close, cosmically speaking, that it was detected by a fleet of observatories both on and above the Earth, and is already yielding a trove of scientific treasure. But even from this immense distance in human terms, it was the brightest such event ever seen in x-rays and gamma rays, bright enough to spot its visible-light emission in smaller amateur telescopes, and was even able to physically affect our upper atmosphere. Despite that, this gamma-ray burst poses no danger to us. Either way, I’m glad they keep their distance. Read more:
Scientific American » A Fluffy 'Marshmallow' World Has Been Discovered With Incredibly Low Density Gamma-ray burst may represent the most powerful cosmic explosion ever recorded Astronomers Just saw the Most Powerful Gamma-ray Burst Ever Recorded Supernova that just hit Earth was unlike anything astronomers had ever seen

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Shares plummeted 25% in premarket trading after Snapchat’s parent company said it was operating on an assumption there would be no revenue growth in the current quarter. Read more >> Yes, I felt it.... Wow too soon the star just died A Fluffy 'Marshmallow' World Has Been Discovered With Incredibly Low DensityIf exoplanet research is to be believed, the Milky Way galaxy could be like some sort of fantastical candy-land. Gamma-ray burst may represent the most powerful cosmic explosion ever recordedAstronomers stunned by 'brightest of all time' gamma-ray burst reckon it could be the most powerful space explosion since the Big Bang Astronomers Just saw the Most Powerful Gamma-ray Burst Ever RecordedIn a series of studies, two teams of astronomers shared their data on the closest and most powerful gamma ray burst ever observed. Supernova that just hit Earth was unlike anything astronomers had ever seenAn enormous gamma-ray burst from a dying star was the most powerful recorded, scientists have said. Lmao 🤣 Congratulations to all of us on not being dead In early October, a wave of high-energy radiation swept over Earth from a gamma-ray burst, one of the most singularly catastrophic and violent events the cosmos has to offer.galaxy could be like some sort of fantastical candy-land.Astronomers have spotted a bright blast of high-energy light that may be the most powerful cosmic explosion ever detected.University of Maryland news story: “Many short GRBs are found in bright galaxies relatively close to us, but some of them appear to have no corresponding galactic home. Astronomers quickly determined its distance and found it was the closest such burst ever seen: a mere two billion light-years from Earth. Or, if you prefer, 20 billion trillion kilometers away from us, a decent fraction of the size of the observable universe. Now, astronomers say they've discovered a world that is comparable to the density of marshmallow. To astronomers, “close” means something different.The initial detection sent teams of astronomers around the world scrambling to observe the aftermath of the cosmic explosion, resulting in several additional detections over the following days. This one was so close, cosmically speaking, that it was detected by a fleet of observatories both on and above the Earth, and is already yielding a trove of scientific treasure. This is important. But even from this immense distance in human terms, it was the brightest such event ever seen in x-rays and gamma rays, bright enough to spot its visible-light emission in smaller amateur telescopes, and was even able to physically affect our upper atmosphere. In the meantime, the energetic nature of this event makes it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for astronomers. Despite that, this gamma-ray burst poses no danger to us. Since atmospheres are thought to be one of the key planetary characteristics that allow life to form and thrive, this would have implications for our understanding of the habitability of planets orbiting red dwarf stars.A. Either way, I’m glad they keep their distance. Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, are intense blasts of gamma rays—the highest-energy form of light—that typically last from a fraction of a second to a few minutes in length. "So far this has only been looked at with small samples from Doppler surveys, which typically have found giant planets further away from these red dwarf stars. Gamma-ray bursts have been a puzzle to astronomers since the Cold War, when the first was discovered in the 1960s by orbiting detectors looking for nuclear weapons tested on or above Earth. 14, told Live Science. Over 1,700 have been observed since then." Red dwarf stars are, by far, the most numerous stars in the Milky Way. Last, but not least, this event also led to. Still, it took decades to pin them down well enough in the sky to observe them with more conventional telescopes, and to understand better what they were. Even then it was difficult, as each GRB has idiosyncrasies, making them complicated to understand as a group. Because they are small, they burn more slowly and way less hot than stars like our Sun, which means they have significantly longer lifespans. "GRB221009A was discovered by multiple satellites and was so bright that it 'triggered' Swift [NASA's gamma-ray detecting satellite] multiple times — normally GRBs only trigger it once," Wen-fai Fong (opens in new tab), a Northwestern astrophysicist and Rastinejad's Ph. Still, we do have a decent grasp of their basic nature. Short-duration bursts—generally a few seconds long at most—come from two superdense neutron stars colliding and blasting out fierce energy, whereas long-duration ones—lasting several minutes—come from massive stars exploding at the ends of their lives. Red dwarf stars are expected to live trillions of years. The core of the star collapses, forming a black hole."Initially, we suspected that it was a transient [the family of emissions to which GRBs belong] within our own Galaxy. A swirling disk of material that wasn’t immediately swallowed by the black hole rapidly forms around it, funneling twin beams of intense energy out into space, one pointing up and the other down, away from the disk. But red dwarfs can be really, really cranky, too, lashing the space around them with powerful flares that could irradiate and sterilize any exoplanets in close orbit, and strip them of their atmospheres. These eat their way through the dying star and erupt outward while the rest of the star explodes as a very powerful supernova. The energy in gamma-ray bursts is almost incomprehensible: In a few seconds they can emit as much energy as the sun will over its entire 12-billion-year lifespan. So, you know, that's a problem." Going out with a bangLocated 2. Their power comes from their tight focus; these thin beams concentrate the explosive energy in a very narrow direction. If the beam happens to be pointed your way, you see a flash of gamma rays bright enough to be detected even from many billions of light-years distant. It's called TOI-3757b, and it's a gas giant orbiting a red dwarf star in the constellation of Auriga, about 580 light-years away. Outside the path you see a more typical supernova. This process also triggers a massive cosmic explosion — a supernova. Despite their power, most bursts are at such a vast distance from us that their light is dimmed dramatically, and a telescope is needed to see them at all. If you know how bright the star is, how much light is blocked tells you how big the exoplanet is. Dubbed GRB 221009A—for the first gamma-ray burst seen on October 9, 2022—its initial flash was first detected by sensors on the orbiting Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, designed specifically to detect and rapidly find the locations of GRBs. However, even for a long-duration burst it was unusually extended, and another blast of gamma rays was spotted by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, another orbiting set of telescopes designed to observe bursts. Then, to obtain the mass of the exoplanet, the researchers looked for changes in the star's light that show the gravitational pull on it exerted by the exoplanet. "Based on the massive energy released and long duration of the explosion, GRB221009A was likely caused by the collapse of a massive star with up to 30 times the mass of our sun," Brendan O'Connor (opens in new tab), a University of Maryland/George Washington University observational astronomer who led another team that detected the GRB, told Live Science. That second peak happened nearly an hour later, much later than usual for such events, indicating just how much power this particular GRB had at its disposal. Swift immediately sent out an automated alert to astronomers all over the world, who responded by pointing their own telescopes toward the burst. Jupiter, by context, is around 318 Earths in mass, with an average density of 1. The fading glow of visible light, caused by the beams slamming into matter surrounding the dying star, revealed its distance via cosmic redshift (a reddening of light caused by the expansion of the universe itself), and indicated this was the closest GRB ever seen." The scientists involved in the discovery of GRB 221009A are also unsure why this particular GRB is so bright and energetic, Fong said. A tweet by astrophysicist Rami Mandow pointed out that lightning detectors in India and Germany showed that the way pulses of electromagnetic radiation from lightning propagated changed suddenly at the same time the GRB energy hit our planet. The average density of TOI-3757b is 0. These indicate conditions in Earth’s upper atmosphere changed, with electrons suddenly stripped from their host atoms. Gamma rays ionize atoms in this way, so it seems very likely that this blast physically affected out planet’s atmosphere, though only mildly and briefly. That's one extremely fluffy exoplanet – so fluffy that it's unclear how it could have formed so close to its star: it completes one orbit every 3. "At the end of November, GRB 221009A is going to be so close to the sun, that we just can't see it with our telescopes anymore," she said. Still, from two billion light-years away, that’s an extraordinary phenomenon. A GRB this close means that astronomers can analyze the light they see from it in more ways than usual; normally, a burst’s light isn’t bright enough to clearly reveal details about the event that caused it. Kanodia and his colleagues think that there could be two factors at play. This specimen could help scientists better understand the central black hole engine that forms during a burst, and the extraordinarily complex nature of the physics surrounding them." When the GRB 221009A emerges from the other side of the sun the astronomy community will be able to continue to track its afterglow to constrain the jet opening angle of the GRB, and thus get a handle on its true energy. It can also tell us about the Milky Way. Because the red dwarf star is low in heavy elements compared to other red dwarfs with gas giants, perhaps the rocky core formed a bit more slowly, which would have delayed gas accumulation and affected the density of the world. The Swift observatory saw expanding rings of x-ray light centered on the GRB’s location, caused by dust clouds in the Milky Way located between roughly 600 to 12,000 light-years from Earth. These “light echoes” happen when light hits dust clouds just off our line of sight to the GRB—so we see them to the side, next to the bright point in the sky. Perhaps when it draws closer, the atmosphere heats up and expands. This won't be the only mystery astronomers aim to decipher using GRB 221009A. Given the delay from the short amount of extra time it takes light from the blast to reach those dust clouds and be scattered toward us, we see rings of light moving outward from the center, their expansion rate related to their distance from us. Measuring these rings allowed astronomers to determine the distances to the clouds. So it probably is just a really puffy atmosphere. Though great strides have been made since then, especially since the 1990s when the first were seen by optical telescopes and their distances determined to be literally cosmic, there is much about them we have yet to understand. The team wants to see  if supernovas could synthesize heavy elements such as gold. GRB 221009A is still being observed by telescopes around the world, and may prove to be a Rosetta stone in these wildly diverse, bizarre and powerful events. "Finding more such systems with giant planets – which were once theorized to be extremely rare around red dwarfs – is part of our goal to understand how planets form,". This is an opinion and analysis article, and the views expressed by the author or authors are not necessarily those of Scientific American. .  "GRBs are the most extreme explosions in our universe, so what's not to love?!" Fong concluded.