All articles tagged with #gamma ray burst
Astronomers linking a long gamma-ray burst to the merger of two compact objects near a galaxy’s central supermassive black hole reveal a new, fourth pathway for how stars can die in the universe’s densest regions, with future work aiming to detect accompanying gravitational waves using observatories like the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.
Scientists used the Submillimeter Array on Maunakea to observe a gamma-ray burst within minutes of its discovery, marking the fastest-ever millimeter-wavelength observations of such an event after a Swift alert. The rapid follow-up enabled near real-time imaging of the burst and its fading afterglow, offering new insights into the jet physics of these colossal explosions and paving the way to even quicker responses in the future.
China's Einstein Probe detected a mysterious X-ray transient EP240305a that produced two closely spaced X-ray flares about 200 seconds apart, with no corresponding gamma-ray emission. Multiwavelength follow-up showed the X-rays fading in days and radio fading over weeks, leaving scientists classifying the event as a gamma-ray-dark GRB-like transient or an extragalactic fast X-ray transient; the true origin remains uncertain, possibly due to jet orientation or gamma-ray obscuration.
A December 27, 2004 giant flare from magnetar SGR 1806-20, though tens of thousands of light-years away, saturated satellites and briefly disturbed Earth’s ionosphere. In the first 0.2 seconds the flare released energy comparable to the Sun’s output over about 250,000 years. Follow-up observations showed a pulsating tail tied to the magnetar’s rotation, with distance estimates later revised, complicating exact energy figures. The event also illustrated how a Galactic magnetar flare can resemble a short gamma-ray burst if viewed from afar, but it posed no danger to Earth and remains a key, well-documented case for magnetar physics and energy release mechanisms.
Astronomers recorded GRB 250702B, the longest gamma-ray burst on record, lasting about seven hours. By combining data from five high-energy telescopes, they suggest a helium-star–black-hole merger produced an unusually long jet, a departure from standard GRB progenitors. The finding highlights that GRB engines can be more diverse, and upcoming missions like the COSI telescope aim to detect more such extreme bursts to unravel the underlying physics.
Using the James Webb Space Telescope and a global network of observatories, scientists detected GRB 250702B, a gamma-ray burst that lasted about seven hours—the longest on record and far longer than typical bursts. The event, occurring in a dusty galaxy about 8 billion light-years away, could arise from an extreme gamma-ray burst, a tidal disruption event, or a black-hole–star merger, but a definitive explanation remains elusive. The multi-wavelength observations highlight extreme physics in stellar death and black-hole interactions and offer a rare window into such phenomena.
Astronomers spotted the fading radio afterglow of a gamma-ray burst that Earth never saw because its jet was not pointed toward us. Using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, they traced ASKAP J005512-255834 to a distant, star-forming galaxy and identified it as the most convincing orphan-afterglow candidate yet, offering a template for finding similar high-energy explosions when the initial blast is missed.
An international team reports a rare link between a binary black hole merger (GW event S241125n, about 4.2 billion light-years away) and a short gamma-ray burst with an X-ray afterglow, suggesting such mergers can emit detectable light under certain conditions and signaling a new era for combining gravitational waves with electromagnetic observations.
GRB 250702B is the longest gamma-ray burst on record, lasting seven hours with three separate bursts in a day. Researchers propose it may have been produced when a Sun-like star was tidally disrupted by an intermediate-mass black hole, creating a relativistic jet; the star could have been shredded in multiple passes, and the event's location away from the galaxy's core supports the IMBH scenario, though competing models remain and evidence is contested.
Astronomers using Chandra, Fermi, Swift and Hubble have pinpointed a neutron-star merger inside a tiny, faint galaxy embedded in a 600,000-light-year gas stream, likely created by a past galaxy collision. The event, GRB 230906A from 2023-09-06, helps explain gamma-ray bursts without obvious host galaxies and how heavy elements like gold and platinum can form and spread into galaxy outskirts.
Astronomers detected GRB 250702B, a gamma-ray burst lasting about 25,000 seconds (roughly seven hours)—the longest on record—observed by multiple space-based telescopes since mid-2025; its sustained, evolving profile challenges standard GRB classifications and may point to a helium-star merger with a stellar-mass black hole, while no redshift or host galaxy has been identified yet. The finding highlights potential detection biases against long, lower-brightness bursts and has spurred plans to revise criteria for future missions like NASA/ESA’s COSI and to re-examine archival data for overlooked events.
A ten-second, ultra-distant gamma-ray burst (GRB 250314A) at z=7.3 (~13.1 billion years old) sparked a rapid, global follow-up, with JWST resolving its explosion as a supernova similar to modern Type II events. The findings imply massive stars were dying and enriching their surroundings within the universe’s first billion years, challenging Population III star death models and suggesting comparatively mature stellar processes occurred far earlier than previously thought.
Scientists detected a powerful gamma-ray burst from a supernova that exploded when the universe was only 730 million years old, making it the most distant such event ever observed. The discovery, confirmed by multiple telescopes including JWST, challenges previous assumptions about early star formation, showing that even in the universe's infancy, stars could undergo processes similar to those seen today.
A record-breaking gamma-ray burst lasting nearly seven hours was observed, challenging existing models of such cosmic explosions. The event, originating from a dusty galaxy billions of light-years away, involved a high-speed jet of material and may have resulted from various extreme astrophysical processes. This unprecedented observation offers a unique opportunity to study extreme physics in the universe.
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has observed the oldest supernova, GRB 250314A, dating back to when the universe was only 730 million years old, providing new insights into early star deaths and galaxy formation.