BOAT: Exploring the Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Seen by Astronomers

SPACE — Scientists can finally figure out what made the biggest explosion in the universe ever seen by mankind so powerful. Astronomers have discovered that the brightest gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) ever seen have a unique jet structure and drag out tremendous amounts of stellar material.

This may explain the extreme nature of the explosion. The explosion is believed to have occurred when a massive star located about 2.4 billion light years from Earth experienced a total collapse of its gravity to give birth to a black hole. The discovery could also tell scientists why the explosion occurred.

This gamma-ray burst is officially called GRB 221009A, but it is also called the BOAT, or the brightest ever. If in football there is GOAT (Great Of All Time) carried by Leonel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, then the explosion is BOAT (Brightest Of All Time). The latest research on BOAT is detailed in a paper recently published in the journal Science Advances.

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BOAT was seen on October 9, 2022, and is brighter than other GRBs due to its extreme nature. It is seen as a very bright flash of high-energy gamma rays, followed by a faint glow that fades along the light waves.

“GRB 221009A represents a major step forward in human understanding of gamma-ray bursts and demonstrates that the most extreme bursts do not obey the standard physics assumed for garden variety gamma-ray bursts,” wrote George Washington University researcher and lead author of the study. Brendan O’Connor in a statement.

O’Connor leads the team that continues to monitor the BOAT GRB with the Gemini South Telescope in Chile after its first discovery in October 2022. Northwestern University doctoral candidate Jillian Rastinejad, who was a member of the team that observed BOAT on October 14, said GRB 221009A is brighter than the energized GRB. another high by a factor of at least 10 times.

“The photons detected from the GRB have more energy than those produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC),” he said.

Even before the GOAT was seen, the GRB was considered the most powerful, powerful and energetic explosion in the universe. In a matter of seconds, gamma rays are capable of releasing as much energy as the sun produces in its lifetime of tens of billions of years.

There are two types of gamma ray bursts, long duration and short duration which may have different launch mechanisms. Both still result in the creation of black holes.

Further studies of the robust GRBs have revealed that they are unique due to their structure as well as their brightness. The GRB turns out to be so vast and so vast, that astronomers couldn’t see its end at first.

“Our work clearly shows that the GRB has a unique structure, with observations gradually revealing narrow jets embedded within a wider gas outflow where isolated bursts would be expected,” said study co-author and Department of Physics scientist at the University of Bath Hendrik. , Van Eerten in a statement.

Thus, the jet launched by GRB 221009A seems to have wide and narrow wings so that it is different from other GRB jets. This could explain why BOAT’s light remnant continued to be visible to astronomers at various wavelengths for months after its initial discovery.

Van Eerten and his team have a theory about what makes the BOAT jets have such a unique structure. “GRB jets have to pass through the collapsing stars where they form,” he said.

“What we think the difference in this case is the amount of mixing that occurs between the stellar material and the jet, so much so that the shock-heated gas continues to appear in our line of sight to the point where any signature of the jet is lost in the overall emission from the rest. -remaining light.”

Van Eerten also points out that these findings can help understand not only BOATs, but also other extraordinary GRBs. “GRB 221009A may be the Rosetta rock equivalent of a long GRB, forcing us to revise our standard theory of how relativistic outflows form in the collapse of massive stars,” added O’Connor.

This discovery has the potential to lay the groundwork for future GRB research as scientists work to unlock the mysteries that still surround these powerful energy bursts. The findings may also help physicists better model the structure of the GRB jet.

“For a long time, we thought of jets as being shaped like ice cream cones. However, the multiple gamma-ray bursts in recent years, and in particular the work presented here, indicate that we need more complex models and detailed computer simulations of gamma-ray bursts. ,” said study co-author and professor of physics at George Washington University, Alexander van der Horst. Source: Space.com