An extremely bright gamma-ray burst detected last year shattered all previous records to become the brightest in over 10,000 years. Read to know more.
Gamma-ray burst surpasses the sun in brightness
In October 2022 astronomers detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that passed shockingly close to Earth. A gamma-ray burst (GRB) is a powerful explosion of gamma-ray radiation that occurs in outer space. Gamma rays are the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation, with wavelengths shorter than X-rays. They can be either short or long duration.
The gamma-ray burst observed on October 9 was highly powerful and lit up several detectors on telescopes in various parts of Earth. Renamed GRB221009A, researchers combined all data to determine it as the ‘most powerful ever.’ Hence, it is nicknamed BOAT, “brightest of all time.” In addition to being the brightest in 10,000 years, the GRB is nearly 70 times brighter than those observed before. “GRB221009A was likely the brightest at X-ray and gamma-ray energies to occur since human civilization began,” stated Eric Burns. Burns is an assistant professor of astronomy and physics at Louisiana State University.
More on the GRB and research:
A team of astronomers, led by Burns analyzed over 7,000 GRBs to determine the frequency of events. According to the study, such a bright event occurs once every 10,000 years. As per NASA, the gamma-ray burst blinded most instruments detecting the phenomenon in space. This means that the real intensity of the GRB was not recorded. Instead, they resorted to reconstructing the information using NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope. Additionally, they compared the data with Russia’s Konus instrument on NASA’s Wind spacecraft and Chinese data from the SATech-01 satellite. The study also revealed the GRB was traveling for about 1.9 billion years before reaching close to Earth and its initial emission lasted for a little over two seconds.