- Written by Parab Ghosh
- science correspondent
Researchers have discovered the cause of the brightest burst of light ever recorded.
However, in the process, they encountered two great mysteries. One raises questions about where heavy elements like gold come from.
The explosion of light, discovered in 2022, is now known to have had an exploding star at its center, researchers said.
But that explosion alone wouldn't have been enough to shine so brightly.
And according to our current theory, such exploding stars, known as supernovae, also produce all the heavy elements in the universe, such as gold and platinum.
However, the research team did not find any of these elements, raising new questions about how precious metals are produced.
Scottish astronomer Royal, Professor Catherine Heymans of the University of Edinburgh and independent of the research team, said results like this could help move science forward.
“Space is a wonderful, wonderful, amazing place, and I love how it throws these challenges at us.
“The fact that we don't get the answers we want is great, because we can go back to the drawing board and think again and come up with a better theory,” she said.
This explosion was detected by telescopes in October 2022. The explosion came from a distant galaxy 2.4 billion light years away and emitted light across all frequencies. But gamma rays, a more penetrating form of X-rays, were particularly strong.
The gamma ray burst lasted for seven minutes and was so powerful that it overwhelmed the detection equipment. Subsequent measurements showed the burst to be 100 times brighter than anything previously recorded, earning it the nickname “Boat” among astronomers, the brightest ever.
Gamma-ray bursts have been associated with supernova explosions, which are too bright to be easily explained. If it was a supernova, according to current theory, it would have been absolutely huge.
The burst was so bright that it initially dazzled instruments at NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). This telescope has only recently become operational and such a powerful explosion is calculated to occur once every 10,000 years, so this is a great opportunity for astronomers wanting to study this phenomenon. was incredibly lucky.
As the light dimmed, one of JWST's instruments was able to confirm that a supernova had indeed occurred. However, it wasn't as powerful as they expected. So why was the gamma ray burst unexpected?
Dr. Peter Blanchard, co-leader of the research team, doesn't know. But he wants to know. He plans to reserve more time at JWST to investigate other supernova remnants.
“These gamma-ray bursts and supernova explosions are not necessarily directly related to each other, and there may be separate processes going on,” he told BBC News.
Dr. Tanmoy Laskar of the University of Utah, co-leader of the study, said BOAT's power may be explained by the way the jets of material are sprayed, as typically happens during supernova explosions. . But if these jets are narrow, they produce a much more focused and very bright beam of light.
“It's like focusing the beam of a flashlight onto a narrow pillar, as opposed to a wide beam that spans the entire wall,” he said. “In fact, this is one of the narrowest jets in a gamma-ray burst ever observed, giving us a hint as to why the afterglow appeared so bright.”
reconsider theory
But what happens to the lost money?
The current theory, taught to all astronomers in universities, is that one of the ways heavy elements such as gold, platinum, lead, and uranium are created is during the extreme conditions that occur during supernova explosions. is. These are spread throughout the galaxy and are used to form planets, which is how, the theory goes, the metals found on Earth arose.
However, the researchers found no evidence of heavy elements around the exploding star. So is this theory wrong and are heavy elements produced in other ways, or only in supernovae under certain conditions?
“Theorists need to go back and look at why events like the boat don't produce heavy elements when theory and simulations predict that they do,” Blanchard said. .
This research was published in the journal “Nature Astronomy”.