A violent explosion in a distant galaxy has broken the record for the brightest source of high-energy light in the Universe.<\/p>\n
The light was emitted by a gamma ray burst, a brief but powerful cosmic explosion in a galaxy seven billion light years away.<\/p>\n
The research involved more than 300 scientists from around the world, and was published today in the journal Nature<\/em>.<\/p>\n Astronomer and co-author Dr Gemma Anderson, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, said gamma ray bursts are among the most powerful explosions in the Universe.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are likely produced by a massive star being blown apart in a supernova, with the resulting explosion leaving behind a black hole,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cA typical burst releases as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun will in its entire 10-billion-year lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr Anderson said gamma ray bursts appear in the sky without warning, about once per day.<\/p>\n \u201cThe bursts themselves usually only last a few seconds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut they have an afterglow that can be observed by telescopes like MAGIC for several minutes, and by radio telescopes for months or even years.\u201d<\/p>\n On January 14, 2019, a gamma ray burst was detected by two space satellites\u2014the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.<\/p>\n It was named GRB 190114C and, within 22 seconds, its coordinates were sent to astronomers around the world.<\/p>\n Among them were the operators of the twin Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes in the Canary Islands.<\/p>\n MAGIC collaboration spokesperson Dr Razmik Mirzoyan said the two 64-ton telescopes were pointed towards the gamma ray burst within 27 seconds.<\/p>\n \u201cThe telescopes were able to observe the burst within 50 seconds of it appearing in the sky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the first seconds after they started observing, the MAGIC telescopes detected particles of light\u2014or photons\u2014from the afterglow that clocked in at between 0.2 and 1 teraelectron volts (TeV).<\/p>\n That\u2019s equivalent to the amount of energy released by proton collisions in the Large Hadron Collider, the most powerful particle accelerator on Earth.<\/p>\n Dr Anderson said it is the first time such high-energy radiation has been detected from a gamma ray burst.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a trillion times more energetic than visible light,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt makes GRB 190114C the brightest known source of TeV photons in the Universe.\u201d<\/p>\n The gamma ray burst was followed up by telescopes around the world, to pinpoint where the burst had originated from and its physical attributes.<\/p>\n That included observations of radio waves by Dr Anderson and collaborators in Australia and around the world, using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA).<\/p>\n Dr Anderson said the high-energy light was likely caused by the blast wave of material from the gamma ray burst hitting the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe photons probably weren\u2019t generated in the explosion itself,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n MAGIC (Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov) is an international collaboration involving 165 researchers (physicists and engineers) from 24 research institutions in 11 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A violent explosion in a distant galaxy has broken the record for the brightest source of high-energy light in the 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