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The researchers found traces of a gamma-ray burst that released more energy in half a second than the sun will produce in 10 billion years.
The scale of the universe was once again shown to astrophysicists following a discovery by a team led by Northwestern University. Writing in The Astrophysical Journal, the team that reviewed the observations, including those made by the Hubble Space Telescope, found something that had never been seen before.
The massive gamma-ray burst – with more energy released in half a second than the sun will release in its 10 billion-year life – may have been the birth of a magnetar. A magnetar is a type of neutron star that is believed to have an extremely powerful magnetic field.
After analyzing the burst with optical wavelengths, X-rays, near infrared and radio, the team believes that a magnetar formed from the merger of two neutron stars. This merger produced the brightest ‘kilonova’ ever seen, the light of which eventually reached Earth on May 22, 2020.
Kilonovae, which are typically 1,000 times brighter than a classic nova, should accompany short bursts of gamma rays. Compared to X-rays and radio observations, the near-infrared emission detected with Hubble was 10 times brighter than expected.
“Particularly exciting”
“When two neutron stars merge, the most common expected result is that they form a heavy neutron star that collapses into a black hole in milliseconds or less,” said Wen-fai Fong, who led the study.
“Our study shows that it’s possible that, for this particular brief gamma-ray burst, the heavy object survived. Instead of collapsing into a black hole, it became a magnetar: a rapidly spinning neutron star that has large magnetic fields, discharging energy into its surroundings and creating the very bright glow we see. “
Jillian Rastinejad, a co-author of the article, said there has been only one confirmed and well-sampled kilonova so far.
“It’s especially exciting to find a new potential kilonova that looks so different,” he said. “This discovery gave us the opportunity to explore the diversity of the kilonovae and their remaining objects. I’m excited about the new surprises that short gamma-ray bursts and neutron star mergers hold for us in the future. “
The team will now try to complete subsequent observations of the region as if this unexpected brightness were the result of a magnetar birth, it should produce light that presents itself at radio wavelengths within a few years.
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