The brightest gamma-ray burst in history hit Earth

At NASA confirmedthat on October 9, 2022, our solar system was hit by a powerful gamma-ray burst. It turned out to be the brightest flash in space in the entire history of our civilization. results research were published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are one of the surprises that science sometimes encounters. In the United States, they are monitored using Vela satellites, which were launched back in 1963 and are designed to detect nuclear explosions on the Earth's surface or in the atmosphere.

The first burst of gamma rays hit the radar as early as 1967. Since then, they have attracted a lot of attention from scientists, because the high-energy phenomena that give rise to them can be the key to unraveling the mystery of the origin of the Universe.

As for the phenomenon on October 9, its first signs were caught by the instruments of the automatic interplanetary station Voyager-1 (Voyager-1). The probe recorded a sharp jump of high-energy particles, which eventually led to a flash that was 70 times brighter than all similar bursts known to astronomers. NASA noted that such phenomena can occur only once in 10,000 years.

Experts named this flash GRB 221009A. They believe that its signal traveled through outer space for about 1.9 billion years before reaching Earth.

Such a powerful surge could be caused by the birth of a black hole. Studying this phenomenon will allow us to learn more about the dust clouds through which the explosion passed, and about the mechanism of black holes, scientists say.