SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submission Preview
Deep Space: Massive Light Burst Detected on Earth Came From ‘Infant’ Universe
On September 5, 2021, light from a very energetic gamma-ray burst (GRB) – an immensely energetic explosion that occurred in a distant galaxy – reached our planet. It had travelled for over 12.8 billion years to reach Earth. The glow started its travels when the Universe (thought to be 13.7 billion years old) was just 880 million years old.
In the months that followed this discovery, an international team of astronomers continued to observe the afterglow of the explosion to learn more about the event that triggered it. The team was led by Dr Andrea Rossi, researcher at the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF). Also involved was Professor Carole Mundell from the University of Bath.
The researchers concluded that the GRB responsible for the glow was one of the most distant and energetic ever detected. Not only, but its afterglow was one of the most luminous on record.
[...] Professor Mundell, Hiroko Sherwin Chair in Extragalactic Astronomy and head of Astrophysics at Bath, was also involved in the research. She says: "As one of the most powerful and distant cosmic explosions yet found, this rare Gamma-Ray Burst joins a tiny club of such bursts discovered from early in the history of the Universe – and this one is from the brightest host galaxy ever detected.
"This discovery gives us new understanding and confirmation that massive stars – which live fast and die hard – are forming and evolving early in the universe."
The GRB observed in this study [aanda.org] was the 'long' kind, meaning it came from a black hole that would have arisen from the catastrophic collapse of a massive star. 'Short' GRBs are usually linked to the collision of compact objects such as neutron stars.
Journal Reference:
A. Rossi, D. D. Frederiks, D. A. Kann, et al., A blast from the infant Universe: The very high-z GRB 210905A⋆ [open], A&A, 665, 2022. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202243225 [doi.org]
