The Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory’s X-Ray Telescope captured the afterglow of the Brightest of All Time gamma-ray burst.
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A self-destructing star in the Pinwheel galaxy has produced a supernova called Supernova 2023ixf, which shines as brightly as 100 billions suns. However, this is not the biggest cosmic explosion event. GRB 221009A, an immensely bright gamma-ray burst detected on October 9, 2022, was ten times brighter than a supernova and was named the Brightest of All Time, or BOAT. It continued to glow long after it should have faded, making it a rare and fascinating phenomenon.
An Extremely Rare Event
GRB 221009A, located just 2.4 billion light years from our solar system, is thought to have occurred due to the collapse of a colossal star, which gave birth to a black hole. The gamma-ray burst is estimated to be a thousand-year event and ten times brighter than other typical events like supernova. Scientists are puzzled as to why it lasted longer than what was expected.
A team of scientists, whose findings were published this week in the journal Science Advances, have theorized that the intense brightness can be attributed to the fact that the gamma-ray jet was directly pointing towards us. Dr. Hendrik Van Eerten from the Department of Physics at the University of Bath in the UK said, “GRB jets need to go through the collapsing star in which they are formed, and what we think made the difference in this case was the amount of mixing that happened between the stellar material and the jet.”
A Slow Fade
The research team believes that the afterglow of the gamma-ray burst took longer to fade because it appeared wider than usual because of the unusually large amount of material that traveled in its wake. “Shock-heated gas kept appearing in our line of sight all the way up to the point that any characteristic jet signature would have been lost in the overall emission from the afterglow,” said Van Eerten.
The Gemini South Telescope in Chile.
Jamie Carter
A Rosetta Stone?
The team observed the event using the Gemini South Telescope in Chile, and Dr. Brendan O’Connor, the paper’s lead author, believes that this event could provide new insight into understanding the physical processes during an extreme gamma-ray burst event. “GRB 221009A might be the equivalent Rosetta Stone of long gamma-ray bursts.” O’Connor said.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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