NASA Space Telescopes Capture the Most Powerful Blast In The Universe – A Gamma Ray Burst

By: | November 29th, 2019

An artist’s interpretation of a gamma-ray burst. (DESY/Science Communication Lab)

Extremely powerful cosmic blast from a galaxy billions of light-years away recently produced the brightest light in the Universe. Violent explosion has broken the record for the brightest source of high-energy light in the Universe. The explosion was a gamma-ray burst seven billion light-years away.

It gives off more energy in milliseconds than the sun is expected to emit during its 10 billion year lifetime.

The research involved more than 300 scientists from around the world. According to researchers these findings will help us know how these extraordinary explosions happen, and how they can reshape the universe.

Astronomer and co-author Dr Gemma Anderson, from the Curtin University said, “They are likely produced by a massive star being blown apart in a supernova, with the resulting explosion leaving behind a black hole”

This gamma-ray burst reached the Earth on the 14th of January 2019 and was named GRB 190114C. It was detected by two space satellites – the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory built by University College London and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Nidhi Goyal

Nidhi is a gold medalist Post Graduate in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.

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