Astronomers at the Gemini-North Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii have witnessed the blaze of a brief gamma-ray burst located at a staggering 10 billion light-years away, one of the most distant phenomena to have been witnessed. .
The science is pretty clear: The farther away an object is from Earth, the dimmer its light will be when viewed from our planet, making it more difficult to detect it through a telescope. That’s why Northwestern University researchers were shocked to catch a glimpse of one of the most powerful types of explosions out there – all the way to the other side of the universe.
The light was the afterglow of a brief gamma-ray burst (SGRB), the second most distant one ever detected, and the SBRG in question was born just 3.8 billion years after the Big Bang that created the universe. It is also the most distant short gamma ray burst ever observed with its measured afterglow.
The article, published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters on Tuesday, was written by Northwestern University assistant professor Wen-fai Fong, who said the team “I certainly did not expect to discover a distant SGRB, as they are extremely rare and very weak.”
SGRBs are generally caused by the fusion of two neutron stars, which releases an incredible explosion of light energy. However, when it reaches Earth, that release of energy is weak and fleeting. Such explosions last for a few hours before fading into nothingness.
With this SGRB, named SGRB181123B, researchers were able to detect it through a combination of precise science and sheer luck.
First spotted on Thanksgiving night in 2018 by NASA, the Northwestern team quickly accessed the Gemini-North telescope remotely to measure the size of the glow. Some follow-up observations from Chile and Arizona helped paint a picture of what the glow meant.
Due to the team’s swift action, “We were able to obtain deep observations of the explosion a few hours after its discovery.” said Kerry Paterson, another of the study’s authors.
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The discovery is important because the flash occurred when the universe was just a teenager, roughly 30 percent of its current age, and offers a rare glimpse of neutron mergers in a period known as the “ high cosmic noon. ”
“Finding an SGRB at this point in the history of the universe suggests that, at a time when the universe was forming a lot of stars, the pair of neutron stars may have merged quite quickly.” Fong said.
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