The gamma-ray radiation ‘jet’ has been travelling for 1.9 billion years.
No, it’s not Treasure Planet: the space BOAT (or ‘the brightest of all time’) is the title earned by an interstellar explosion so bright that it blinded the instruments that detected it.
Gamma-ray radiation from the explosion reached Earth telescopes on 9 October 2022, but has been travelling for about 1.9 billion years. Comparing data collected by the US, Russia and China since the explosion, astronomers can now prove that the BOAT was 70 times brighter than any burst previously seen in space.
Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful types of explosions in the Universe. Analysis by astronomers at Louisiana State University estimates that bursts this bright happen once in every 10,000 years.
In fact, the BOAT was “likely the brightest burst at X-ray and gamma-ray energies to occur since human civilization began” said Eric Burns, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at Louisiana State University, while presenting at the High Energy Astrophysics Division meeting in Hawaii.
The light was likely emitted by a black hole piercing energy through a massive collapsing star. As a star runs out of nuclear fuel, its core collapses under its own weight and forms a black hole.
The black hole drills jets of particles through the star at the speed of light. These jets, which contain high-energy gamma rays and X-rays, surge through space and collide with their surroundings – forming the afterglow detected by Earth’s astronomers. The more head-on an object is to the particle jet, the brighter it appears – and Earth was in the direct firing line of the BOAT.
Astronomers expect a burst this bright to be followed by a supernova, but so far none have been detected. More observations with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope are planned over the next few months in an attempt to glimpse the supernova – but it is possible that the black hole swallowed the entire star.
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