As it quickly ingests the surrounding matter, the black hole blasts out jets in opposite directions containing particles accelerated to near the speed of light. Astronomers think these bursts represent the birth cry of a black hole that formed when the core of a massive star collapsed under its own weight. The signal from the gamma ray burst, dubbed GRB 221009A, had been traveling for about 1.9 billion years before it reached Earth, making it among the closest known "long" GRBs, whose initial, or prompt, emission lasts more than two seconds. Alexander and other scientists presented new findings about the BOAT at the High Energy Astrophysics Division meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Waikoloa, Hawaii, on Tuesday. Jansky Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico, NASA's NuSTAR observatory and even Voyager 1 in interstellar space. Observations of the burst span the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to gamma rays, and include data from many NASA and partner missions, including the National Science Foundation's Karl G. "You would expect one of this magnitude about once in 10,000 years." "This flash of gamma rays was the brightest burst ever recorded," said Kate Alexander, an assistant professor in the UArizona Department of Astronomy and Steward Observatory, who co-authored one of the papers. Papers describing the results will appear in a focus issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Two research teams at the University of Arizona joined the international effort to obtain and analyze the data to better understand what causes these outbursts of cosmic proportions. After combing through all of the data, astronomers can now characterize just how bright it was and better understand its scientific impact. ![]() The burst triggered detectors on numerous spacecraft, and observatories around the globe followed up. The source was a gamma-ray burst, or GRB – the most powerful class of explosions in the universe. 9, a pulse of intense radiation swept through the solar system, so exceptional that astronomers quickly dubbed it the BOAT – the brightest of all time. ![]() Radiation including gamma rays, X-rays, visible light and radio waves arises from hot ionized gas near the newborn black hole, collisions among shells of fast-moving gas within the jet, and from the leading edge of the jet as it sweeps up and interacts with its surroundings. Illustration of the most common type of gamma-ray burst: The core of a massive star (left) has collapsed, forming a black hole that sends a jet into space at near the speed of light.
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