In news A group of astronomers have detected a very short, powerful burst of high-energy radiation that lasted for about a second and had been racing toward Earth for nearly half the present age of the universe.
The burst detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on August 26, 2020, turned out to be one the shortest gamma-ray burst (GRB) caused by the death of a massive star.
From India, The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune (IUCAA), National Centre for Radio Astrophysics – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Pune (NCRA) and IIT Mumbai also participated in this work.
The burst emitted 14 million times the energy released by the entire Milky Way galaxy over the same amount of time, making it one of the most energetic short-duration GRBs ever seen.
What are gamma-ray bursts (GRB)?
GRBs are the most powerful events in the universe, detectable across billions of light-years.
Astronomers classify them as long or short based on whether the event lasts for more or less than two seconds.
They observe long bursts in association with the demise of massive stars, while short bursts have been linked to a different scenario.
This recent identification of GRBs showed for the first time that a dying star can produce short bursts too.
When a star much more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel, its core suddenly collapses and forms a black hole.
As matter swirls toward the black hole, some of it escapes in the form of two powerful jets that rush outward at almost the speed of light in opposite directions.
Astronomers only detect a GRB when one of these jets happens to point almost directly toward Earth.
