Brightest gamma ray burst of all time emerged from collapsing star

A burst of gamma rays more than 10 times brighter than any detected before struck Earth in October 2022, searing the atmosphere , wowing astronomers, and earning the nickname of the BOAT—the brightest of all time. Now, astronomers using NASA’s JWST orbiting observatory have identified the source of the blast—and stumbled on a new puzzle. As theorists expected, what powered the burst was a type of supernova called a collapsar: a massive, rapidly rotating star that ran out of fuel and collapsed, blasting its outer layers into space before disappearing into a black hole. Researchers also think the extreme conditions generated by collapsars are likely to forge the heaviest elements in nature, such as uranium, platinum, and gold. Given the brightness of BOAT, they expected the element-forging process to be on vivid display. But the team saw nothing . “There was no evidence that these elements are present,” says Peter Blanchard of Northwestern University, who led the work, published today in Nature Astronomy . Other recent studies have shown the same puzzling deficit. But theorists say it’s too soon to write off collapsars as sources of the heaviest elements. “I don’t think it’s decided yet,” says Chiaki Kobayashi of the University of Hertfordshire. “We just don’t have enough statistics.” The big bang endowed the universe with abundant hydrogen and helium. But all the other 92 natural elements are forged in s...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news