The most powerful gamma ray burst ever observed has been recorded

The observed gamma ray burst was so powerful that it could be seen with the naked eye from Earth

NASA reports that a gamma-ray burst observed March 19 by the Swift space telescope shattered the record for the most distant object visible from Earth to the naked eye.

Most gamma-ray bursts occur when a massive star exhausts all of its nuclear fuel. The core of the star collapses and creates a black hole or neutron star, a process that creates a tremendous burst of energy in the form of gamma rays. Such an eruption emits particles that travel at the speed of light through space, and as the particles pass through interstellar clouds they heat the gas that makes up the cloud, often creating an afterglow. Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous bursts in the universe since the Big Bang.

According to NASA researchers, this outburst is the most powerful outburst ever recorded. The Swift space telescope spotted the outburst on March 19, 2008, and soon other telescopes and many ground stations began watching the area to see the afterglow.

Since gamma rays travel at the speed of light, it takes time for them to reach the Earth. Other researchers who watched the eruption later that evening reported that the eruption occurred 7.5 billion years ago, as a result, it took the gamma rays 7.5 billion light years to reach the earth. At the time of the explosion, the universe was half its current age and the Earth did not yet exist. The distance the gamma rays traveled is more than half the distance of the universe known to man.

Swift Space Telescope

Cyopt is a space telescope launched by NASA in 2004 and it was built together with international partners from the UK, Italy, Germany and Japan and its purpose is to detect gamma-ray bursts.

The telescope finds an average of 2 eruptions per week, but on that day, 4 eruptions were detected in one day, with one of them being the strongest eruption ever observed - two records in one day!

The powerful burst was named GRB 080319B since it was the second burst discovered that day.

The scientific meaning

Such distant bodies cannot be seen from Earth except with the help of special telescopes, but this eruption was seen for 50 seconds by the unaided eye from Earth. Therefore, it was defined as the farthest object ever seen from Earth, without the use of optical instruments.

The afterglow of GRB 080319B is 2.5 million times brighter than the brightest supernova ever observed. The study of the eruption is in its infancy, so we do not know why the eruption is so bright. One possibility is that the star had much more energy - perhaps because of the star's mass, its rotation or its magnetic field. Another reason for explaining the phenomenon is that most of the energy is concentrated in one direction - in the direction of the Earth - and therefore from our position we saw the glow at its peak. What is certain is that the case will occupy the researchers for a long time to come.