Fermi Space Telescope detects once in a 10,000 years gamma-ray burst
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A team of astronomers led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville has detected the brightest gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever.
These bursts are thought to be among the most luminous explosions in the universe and created during the birth of black holes. GRBs generally last from less than a second to several minutes.
The brightest of all GRB
This recently discovered GRB has been named Gamma-Ray Burst 221009A. It is located in the direction of the constellation Sagitta, roughly 2.4 billion light-years away from Earth.
According to the official statement, the GRB was emitted by the collapse of a colossal star that went supernova, resulting in the formation of a black hole.
“During a GRB, we see the death of a massive star, approximately 30 times more massive than the Sun, and the formation of a black hole,” said Peter Veres, an assistant professor at the university, in an official release.
“The black hole launches a very fast jet close to the speed of light, and the jet will produce a gamma-ray burst. At later times, GRBs are visible at other wavelengths as well, from radio, or optical through very high-energy gamma-rays, which is called the afterglow of the GRB. This GRB was so bright, the afterglow showed up in the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor, which is very uncommon, and we could follow it for almost three hours,” explained Veres.
This bright GRB was discovered using a Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) equipped with the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. This telescope is situated in low-Earth orbit, away from the obstruction of Earth's atmosphere, to search for various forms of GRBs.
Specialized GBM instrument
This advanced GBM, operated by the University of Alabama, continuously scans the sky for incoming GRBs light.
According to the release, the GBM has 12 sophisticated detectors to achieve this goal.
A few of its detectors are made of sodium iodide and designed to detect X-rays and low-energy gamma rays, while two are made of bismuth germanate to look at high-energy gamma rays.
The crystals within the detector light up whenever gamma rays interact with them. The more energy in the burst, the more light is generated.
The GBM can determine the direction of the bursts by seeing which crystals light up. The Fermi telescope has detected over 3,500 GRBs, with 221009A being by far the brightest.
“This gamma-ray burst was extremely bright. We expect to see one like this only every 10,000 years or so,” noted Veres.
“We routinely detect GRBs at a rate of about five per week and keep an eye out if any of the GRBs are special in some way. This one was so bright, the instrument couldn't keep up with a large number of incoming photons,” added Veres.
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