NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope has examined the most powerful explosion since the Big Bang. The analysis revealed an unprecedented feature. This bright and super-powerful phenomenon, which occurs once every 10,000 years, is probably caused by the annihilation of matter and antimatter at 99.9% of the speed of light. This is written by the publication Science.
The explosion, known as a gamma-ray burst (GRB), was designated GRB 221009A. It was recorded on October 9, 2022. It has been nicknamed “brightest of all time” or BOAT for short.
Wen-Fai Fong, an associate professor of physics and astronomy from Northwestern University, explained that this burst was the brightest ever seen, surpassing the brightest quasars by a factor of 10. Scientists believe that the BOAT originated from a supernova explosion after the death of a massive star 2.4 million light-years away from Earth, probably leaving behind a black hole.
Maria Edvige Ravasio of Radboud University noted that the Fermi gamma-ray spectrometer detected an unusual energy peak immediately after the burst. The analysis showed that this was the first high-confidence emission line detected in 50 years of GRB research.
Gamma bursts
The first gamma-ray burst was detected in 1967 by the U.S. Vela satellites. Since then, scientists have detected many GRBs, determining that these bursts of light are the most powerful explosions in the Universe. GRBs most often occur when stars eight times the mass of the Sun run out of nuclear fusion fuel and collapse, creating a black hole that ejects matter in jets at near-light speeds.
If the GRB had exploded a few thousand light years away from Earth, it could have wiped out life on the planet. However, even among all such events, BOAT really stands out. Despite its distance of 2.4 billion light-years, GRB 221009A even affected Earth’s atmosphere.
Blindingly bright BOAT
On October 9, 2022, gamma rays from BOAT “blinded” most gamma-ray detectors in orbit, including Fermi. This made it difficult to measure the true power of the explosion. Five minutes after the burst, the BOAT faded, allowing Fermi to observe it again. Scientists detected a “putative emission line” in the light that lasted about 40 seconds and reached a peak energy of 12 million electron volts (MeV).
Researchers believe they have figured out what caused this peculiarity. Every particle of matter has a twin antimatter particle. When these particles meet, they annihilate with the release of incredible amounts of energy. It is possible that the spectral signature the team saw in the burst comes from the annihilation of electrons and their antimatter equivalents, the positrons. If so, then at the moment of the explosion, the particles accelerated to 99.9% of the speed of light before annihilating each other.
Elizabeth Hays, a Fermi project scientist, said that after decades of studying these cosmic explosions, many details remain obscure, and finding such clues is remarkable.
Earlier we reported on how a black hole “shot” an X-ray beam.
According to space.com
