ESA’s Integrated Space Telescope has detected an unprecedented gamma-ray burst from a distant exploding star, causing major disruptions in Earth’s ionosphere. This event, the brightest and most powerful event ever recorded, has prompted researchers to explore its possible connection to Earth’s history of mass extinctions.
Massive gamma ray bursts were discovered by ESA Integrated Space Telescope, hit the ground. The explosion caused major disturbances in our planet’s ionosphere. Such disturbances are usually associated with energetic particle events on the Sun, but this event was the result of the explosion of a star about two billion light years away. Analyzing the impact of the explosion can provide information about mass extinctions in Earth’s history.
Detection of the brightest gamma-ray bursts
At 14:21 GMT/15:21 CEST on 9 October 2022, an extremely bright and long-lasting gamma ray burst (GRB) was detected by several high-energy satellites in near-Earth orbit, including ESA’s Lunar Integral satellite. a task.
The artistic impression depicts the impact of a powerful gamma ray burst that severely disrupted our planet’s ionosphere. This is the result of a gamma ray burst (GRB) resulting from the supernova explosion of a star in a galaxy about two billion light years away. Source: ESA/ATG Europe; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
The International Gamma Ray Laboratory for Astrophysics (INTEGRAL) was launched by the European Space Agency in 2002 and has detected gamma ray bursts almost every day since then. However, GRB 221009A, as the explosion is known, is not unusual. “This is probably the brightest gamma-ray burst we have ever detected,” said Mirco Piersanti, of the University of L’Aquila in Italy, and lead author of the team that published these results.
Understanding gamma ray bursts
Gamma ray bursts were once a mysterious event, but are now known to be the outpouring of energy from a stellar explosion called a supernova, or from the collision of two very dense neutron stars.
“We have been measuring gamma-ray bursts since the 1960s, and these are the most powerful ever measured,” said co-author Pietro Ubertini, of the National Astrophysical Institute in Rome, Italy, and principal investigator of Intergral’s IBIS instrument. So strong that its closest competitor is ten times weaker. Statistically, a powerful GRB like GRB 221009A only reaches Earth once every 10,000 years.
Impact on the Earth’s ionosphere
During the 800 seconds the gamma rays hit, the blast provided enough energy to activate lightning detectors in India. Devices in Germany picked up signals indicating that the Earth’s ionosphere was disrupted for several hours by the explosion. This enormous energy gave the team the idea to look for the impact of the explosion on the Earth’s ionosphere.
The ionosphere is the layer of the Earth’s upper atmosphere that contains an electrically charged gas called… plasma. The height ranges from 50 km to 950 km. Researchers call this the upper side of the ionosphere above 350 km, and the lower side of the ionosphere below it. The ionosphere is so fragile that spacecraft can orbit most of it.
First observation of ionospheric disturbances on the upper side
One such spacecraft is the China Electromagnetic Seismic Satellite (CSES), also known as Zhangheng, a Sino-Italian space mission. It was launched in 2018 and monitors the upper side of the ionosphere for changes in its electromagnetic behavior. Its main mission is to study the possible relationship between changes in the ionosphere and the occurrence of seismic events such as earthquakes, but it can also study the influence of solar activity on the ionosphere.
Both Mirko and Petro were part of the CSES science team, and they realized that if the GRB explosion caused a disturbance, CSES would have to look into it. But they couldn’t be sure. “We looked for this effect from other gamma-ray bursts in the past, but we didn’t see anything,” Pietro said.
This illustration shows the components of a long gamma-ray burst, the most common type. The core of a massive star (left) collapses to form a black hole, sending a stream of particles traveling through the collapsed star and out into space at nearly the speed of light. Radiation across the spectrum comes from hot ionized gas (plasma) near the newborn black hole, from collisions between fast-moving shells of gas within the jet (internal shock waves), and from the leading edge of the jet as it moves upward and interacts. with its environment (external shock wave). Source: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
In the past, GRBs have been observed to impact the lower side of the ionosphere at night, when solar influence is removed, but never the upper side. This gives rise to the belief that by the time the explosion reaches Earth, the GRB explosion is no longer strong enough to cause changes in ionospheric conductivity resulting in differences in the electric field.
But this time, when scientists looked at it, their luck was different. The effect is clear and powerful. For the first time, they saw violent disturbances in the form of strong variations in the electric field in the upper side of the ionosphere. “So fabulous. “We can see things happening in space but they also have an impact on Earth,” said Eric Kolkers, ESA project scientist.
The effects of gamma ray bursts are long-term
Specifically, this explosion occurred in a galaxy about 2 billion light years away – two billion years ago – but still had enough energy to impact Earth. Although the Sun is usually the primary source of radiation strong enough to affect Earth’s ionosphere, GRBs trigger instruments generally dedicated to studying large explosions in the Sun’s atmosphere known as solar flares. “It is noteworthy that this disturbance affected the lower layers of the Earth’s ionosphere, located only tens of kilometers above the surface of our planet, leaving a signature similar to a large solar flare,” said Laura Hayes, one of the researchers. and solar physicist at the European Space Agency.”.
The implications in the field
This sign appears in the form of increased ionization in the lower part of the ionosphere. It is detected in very low frequency radio signals that bounce between the Earth and the Earth’s lower ionosphere. “Basically, we can say that the ionosphere is ‘moving’ to lower altitudes, and we find this by how radio waves bounce along the ionosphere,” explains Laura, who These results are published In 2022.
This strengthens the idea that supernovae in our galaxy could have more serious consequences. “There is a lot of controversy regarding the possible consequences of gamma-ray bursts in our galaxy,” Mirko said.
In the worst case, the explosion would not only impact the ionosphere, but could also damage the ozone layer, allowing dangerous ultraviolet rays from the sun to reach the earth’s surface. There is speculation that such effects are likely the cause of several mass extinction events that have occurred on Earth in the past. But to investigate this idea, we need more data.
Now that they know exactly what to look for, the team has started looking back at the data collected by CSES and connecting it to other gamma-ray bursts that Integral has seen. Although they can only go back to 2018, when CSES launched, follow-up missions are already planned, ensuring that an exciting new window into how Earth interacts even with the very distant universe will now remain open.
References: “Bukti gangguan medan listrik ionik atas yang terkait dengan ledakan sinar gamma” oleh Mirko Bersanti, Pietro Ubertini, Roberto Battiston, Angela Bazzano, Giulia D’Angelo, James J. Ruddy, Piero Diego, Zima Zerin, Roberto Amendola, Davide Padoni , Simona Bartucci, Stefania Pioli, Igor Bertillo, William J. Berger, Donatella Campana, Antonio Ciccone, Piero Cipollone, Silvia Colli, Livio Conti, Andrea Contin, Marco Cristoforetti, Fabrizio De Angelis, Cinzia Di Donato, Christian De Santis, Andrea De Luca, Emiliano Fiorenza, Francesco Maria Follega, Giuseppe Gebbia, Roberto Yoba, Alessandro Lega, Marco Lolli, Bruno Martino, Matteo Martucci, Giuseppe Massiantonio, Matteo Mergi, Marco Messi, Alfredo Morbidini, Coralie Neubuser, Francesco Nozzoli, Fabrizio Nocelli, Alberto Oliva , Giuseppe Austria, Francesco Palma, Federico Palmonari, Beatrice Panico, Emanuele Babini, Alexandra Parmentier, Stefania Percibali, Francesco Perfetto, Alessio Perinelli, Piergio Picozza, Michele Pozzato, Gianmaria Ribustini, Dario Ricciotti, Esther Ricci, Marco Ricci, Sergio P. Ricciarini , Andrea Rossi, Zuleika Sahnoun, Umberto Savino, Valentina Scotti, Zhuhui Chen, Alessandro Sotgio, Roberta Sparvoli, Silvia Tovani, Nello Vertoli, Veronica Villona, Vincenzo Vitale, Ugo Zanoni, Simona Zuffoli by Paolo Zuccone, 14 November 2023 , Komunikasi Alam.
two: 10.1038/s41467-023-42551-5
2023-11-16 14:52:35
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