A record-breaking gamma-ray burst was observed thanks to a series of space and ground-based telescopes on October 9, 2022. The fast global alert system existing among astronomical organizations made it possible to use several instruments to detect the event and its consequences over the next few days. Cataloged as GRB221009A, it’s already been called the gamma-ray burst of the century because it was very powerful even by the standards of these extremely energetic events. It may have been caused by a supernova that gave birth to a black hole but studies of the information collected have just begun.
Various telescopes designed to detect X-ray and gamma-ray emissions detected the event later cataloged as GRB221009A on October 9. NASA’s Swift Space Observatory, a telescope specializing in the search for gamma-ray bursts, was the one that reported this significant event enabling alert astronomers around the world. This allowed other instruments to be aimed at the same area to observe the consequences of that gamma-ray burst.
Early estimates indicate that GRB221009A was an extremely powerful gamma-ray burst. The Chinese LHAASO experiment detected the most energetic photon ever captured from such an event with its 18 TeV. An article made available on the arXiv server is focused on it but it should be kept in mind that it has just been written and not peer-reviewed.
According to estimates made in an initial analysis of data collected by the Swift observatory, the GRB221009A gamma-ray burst took about 1.9 billion years to reach Earth. According to other estimates made using data collected by the Gemini South observatory, the source is about 2.4 billion light-years from Earth.
Estimating the distance of the source of the GRB221009A event isn’t easy also because the photons passed through clouds of dust that caused deviations in their trajectory that made their journey longer. For this reason, the image of the so-called afterglow obtained thanks to the detections of the first hour of the X-ray event of the Swift space observatory shows a series of concentric rings. They match the number of dust clouds encountered by gamma-ray photons. So far, ten clouds have been counted but the observations have continued and there are scientists interested in studying the journey of those photons.
Several instruments detected the GRB221009A gamma-ray burst and its aftermath in the following days, including NASA’s NICER and the Japanese space agency JAXA’s MAXI detectors, two experiments installed on the International Space Station. It was the center of attention at the 10th Fermi Symposium held in South Africa between 9 and 15 October, as the conference is focused on the results obtained with NASA’s Fermi Space Telescope, which tracked the event for over ten hours. However, the analyzes will take time.
According to early reconstructions, the GRB221009A gamma-ray burst was generated by a supernova that may have given birth to a black hole. This energetic event caused great excitement in the world of astronomy but it will take time for the data analysis to be completed and peer-reviewed to be published in scientific journals.
