Disir
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- Sep 30, 2011
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A team of astronomers has detected the sonic boom from an immensely powerful cosmic explosion, even though the explosion itself was totally unseen.
For years, astronomers have been hunting all over the sky for an example of this strange phenomenon, known as an "orphan afterglow." At last, now they've finally found one.
The titanic eruption, known as a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), was generated by the collapse of a massive star in a galaxy nearly 300 million light-years from Earth. In the process, the star collapsed into either a dense star called a magnetar, or more likely, a black hole.
Typically, GRBs release a prodigious amount of energy, as much as the Sun would release over ten billion years.
The blast generates two jets of gamma rays which travel out from the collapsing star in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light. When these jets are pointed at Earth, astronomers see these focused outpourings of energy as intense flashes of gamma-rays.
But, GRB jets are very narrow, and because the jets from this particular collapsing star weren't pointed at us, the GRB itself was completely undetectable.
Astronomers discover sonic boom from powerful unseen explosion
That's cool
For years, astronomers have been hunting all over the sky for an example of this strange phenomenon, known as an "orphan afterglow." At last, now they've finally found one.
The titanic eruption, known as a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), was generated by the collapse of a massive star in a galaxy nearly 300 million light-years from Earth. In the process, the star collapsed into either a dense star called a magnetar, or more likely, a black hole.
Typically, GRBs release a prodigious amount of energy, as much as the Sun would release over ten billion years.
The blast generates two jets of gamma rays which travel out from the collapsing star in opposite directions at nearly the speed of light. When these jets are pointed at Earth, astronomers see these focused outpourings of energy as intense flashes of gamma-rays.
But, GRB jets are very narrow, and because the jets from this particular collapsing star weren't pointed at us, the GRB itself was completely undetectable.
Astronomers discover sonic boom from powerful unseen explosion
That's cool
