These extreme cosmic explosions are breaking physics
Scientific American · Robin George Andrews ·
Astronomers are finally figuring out what powers mysterious gamma-ray bursts
Astronomers have seen things you wouldn’t believe. Diaphanous auroras on other planets. Collapsing stars off the belt of Orion. The fringes of black holes seemingly on fire. But nothing has ever compared to the almighty force of what one astrophysicist calls “the energy monsters of the universe.”
Every now and then, observatories catch strange flashes lighting up the far-flung reaches of the cosmos. These cataclysmic explosions spray intense radiation and beams of energy through the universe at close to the speed of light. After the initial blast, which spews out gamma rays, a storm of radiation pours into the surrounding galaxy, creating a ferocious afterglow that burns in every part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Although these events have much in common with various science-fiction superweapons, they are entirely natural eruptions known as gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs. They are by far “the most extreme things in the universe,” says Eric Burns, an astrophysicist at Louisiana State University.
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