Burst Leave Scientists Perplexed

What Is Going On In Space?

Space is something quite mysterious, that raises many questions but has no answer, yet. Scientists find something new about space that we had not known before each day. The fact that space is infinite, makes the answers harder to come by. Scientists have discovered something yet again, something that they had not seen before. Every now and then they would come by smaller bursts in space, but nothing like what they had witnessed. They were able to discover a tremendous, and powerful burst in space. SciTechDaily states, “An unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation swept over Earth Sunday.” This left many scientists all around the world completely astounded, as this was not expected to occur. This also led to many of them looking into it a bit more, trying to find out how long it took for that burst to travel through space to get to Earth.

What Is This Burst?

This burst can be categorized as a GRB, also known as Gamma Ray Burst. According to SciTechDaily, a Gamma Ray Burst is “the most powerful class of explosions in the universe.” This burst is brighter than the sun, being that it is the most powerful explosion. Since it is so close to Earth, the sun is known to be incredibly bright. It is known that the sun is incredibly bright, being that it is very close to the Earth. These Gamma Ray Bursts, even though they are farther away, can be much brighter than the sun. According to Big Think, “Massive, young, blue stars can shine millions of times as bright.”

Is This Burst Dangerous?

Although some may think that a burst of this magnitude can pose a danger to humanity, it does not thank to how far away it was. According to Mashable, “This terrific explosion happened in a galaxy 2 billion light-years away. At such a distance, its energy, which has been traveling and spreading through space for eons, poses no danger to us.”

If it was a little bit closer, then it could have potentially been dangerous to us. On the other hand, it is close enough to where new observations can be made. Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member stated, “This burst is much closer than typical GRBs, which is exciting because it allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see.” Typically, the GRBs that we have seen, have been much farther away to the point where no observations can really be made. This is something new and very exciting.

How Rare is This Burst?

Many scientists believe this burst is incredibly rare to have occurred. “But a huge star, the type that’s needed to make an extremely bright and long (on the order of several minutes) gamma-ray burst, only explodes about once every million years in a medium-sized galaxy like ours,” according to Mashable. Yes, once every million years. This is how rare a blast of this magnitude occurs around a galaxy like ours. We have witnessed something that may not happen again in our lifetime, which is why it’s so amazing.

What Does This Mean for the Future of Space Research?

This is the beginning of being able to test our current technology, and being able to see if we can find anything new about these blasts than we have before. There is most certainly something that we are missing within these blasts, and it is very important for scientists to be able to find out everything that they can about them. Due to the rarity of these GRBs, scientists want to fully examine this blast. This opens a door to a whole new realm of science, and our understanding of space only expands from here.

Written by David Loran Jr

Sources:

Big Think: Did NASA just observe the brightest burst of all-time?

SciTechDaily: Strange Long-Lasting Pulse of High-Energy Radiation Swept Over Earth

Mashable: Huge, unusually powerful explosion in space just detected by scientists

Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Joël Kuiper’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License

Inset Image Courtesy of Mat Hampson’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License