This flash comes from an event that occurred 2.4 billion light years away.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, WASHINGTON – Astronomers observe the brightest flash of light ever seen. This flash comes from an event that occurred 2.4 billion light years from Earth. These flashes were probably triggered by the formation of black holes.
Gamma-ray bursts, the most common form of electromagnetic radiationntens — was first detected by an orbiting telescope on October 9, 2022. Its beam is still observed by scientists around the world.
Astrophysicist Brendan O’Connor said so AFPquoted by Japan today, Sunday (16/10/2022), that gamma-ray burst lasting hundreds of seconds, it is thought to be caused by the death of a massive star more than 30 times more massive than our Sun.
The star explodes in a supernova, collapses into the black hole, then matter forms in the disk around the black hole, falls inward, and is ejected in a beam of energy that travels at 99.99% the speed of light.
The flash released a photon carrying a record energy of 18 teraelectron volts (18 with 12 zeros behind it). These outputs impacted long-wave radio communications in the Earth’s ionosphere.
“This is absolutely record-breaking, both in the number of photons and in the energy of the photons that reach us,” said O’Connor, who used the infrared instrument of the Gemini South telescope in Chile to make the new observations on Friday morning. . .
“Something this bright near here is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event,” he added.
Gamma-ray research first began in the 1960s, when United States (USA) satellites designed to detect whether the Soviet Union detonated bombs in space eventually discovered such explosions originating outside the Milky Way .
