Gamma-ray bursts, a type of electromagnetic burst discovered accidentally by the US military in the 1960s, occur as a massive star reaches the end of its life and explodes. In a matter of seconds, they release more energy than the Sun will produce for 10 billion years.
Last Sunday, October 9, astronomers recorded the strongest gamma-ray burst ever recorded in space through their telescopes. Let’s take a look at the details together.
The explosion released 18 tera electron volts of energy
The explosion detected on Sunday was the most powerful explosion ever observed, releasing 18 teraelectronvolts of energy. Scientists are still analyzing the measurements, but current findings suggest that this gamma-ray burst is the strongest to date. The strongest explosion before that was less than 10 tera electron volts.
At first, the power of the explosion confused astronomers because they thought it came from a source close to Earth. They also believed that initially energy came from X-rays rather than gamma-rays. Later analysis revealed that it was a gamma-ray burst from a source about 2.4 billion light-years away.
So while not exactly close, this gamma-ray burst is the closest to Earth ever seen. This gamma-ray burst is at a safe distance from Earth, but if it were any closer, it would be disastrous for our planet.
Such an energetic flare, thousands of light-years from Earth, would destroy the planet’s protective ozone layer and possibly cause mass extinction. So we can say that we got off cheap. What are you thinking? Please do not forget to share your thoughts with us in the comments.
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