Supernova Blast Emitted Record Burst of Gamma Rays
Astronomers have chronicled a record-setting burst of gamma rays from the violent death throes of a relatively nearby massive star that imploded into a black hole.
“This burst was a once-in-a-century cosmic event,” Hertz said during an international media briefing Thursday.
“It’s much more than the energy that the sun has emitted in its whole life,” said Stanford University astrophysicist Nicola Omodei, one of the authors of a series of studies analyzing the gamma ray burst published online Thursday in the journal Science.
“Most of this energy was released in just a few tens of seconds, then the source slowly began to decay away,” added fellow Stanford astrophysicist Giacomo Vianello.
The relative proximity and magnitude of the event, detected April 27, gave numerous satellites and land-based observatories an ideal opportunity to collect a long stream of data on gamma ray burst 130427A, as the event was dubbed.