Astronomers have released an image of the results of a bright gamma-ray burst. Published on Web site European Space Agency.
Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest events in the sky, although in their pure form they cannot be seen with the naked eye. They are associated with either merging of neutron stars (or black holes) or supernova explosions. Explaining the formation mechanism of gamma-ray bursts is extremely important for astrophysicists and is far from certain.
Now scientists have reported progress in their observations of the record-breaking bright burst GRB 221009A. It was first recorded by the Fermi observatory in 2022, and scientists believed the source was somewhere near the galaxy’s core. However, subsequent observations with the VLT telescope revealed that the explosion occurred much further away from Earth, two billion light-years away.
From this it follows that the gamma-ray burst must have a record brightness. Events like GRB 221009A are believed to occur every millennium, so this is probably the brightest flash in the history of human civilization. For a few seconds, while it lasted, radiation with a total gigawatt power reached the Earth’s atmosphere, and a post-sunset glow is now observed.
The image with the concentric circles was taken in the X-ray range by the XMM-Newton space observatory a few days after the outbreak. GRB 221009A is in the center of the frame, and concentric patterns were created by flare interacting with dust in interstellar space. Moreover, each ring is a dust cloud at different distances, the closer to the center the farther from Earth.
Analysis of this image made it possible to study the properties of the cosmic dust that made up the ring and to confirm that it was composed of graphite. At the same time, scientists have not been able to get a picture of the remnants of the supernova themselves: a black hole has probably formed in its place, which is rapidly absorbing material.