Huge flame that passed over Mars from a powerful neutron star in a galaxy 11.4 million light-years from Earth
- A giant ignition was detected in April by NASA satellites as it passed Mars
- Scientists say it came from a strong neutron star 11.4 million light-years away
- This is the largest explosion detected since 2008 by NASA satellites
- Named GRB 200415A, it lasted milliseconds, but the updated tools were able to capture enough data to track a return path from where they came from.
A giant ignition that swept through the solar system in April sent scientists into space to investigate the origin of the high-energy explosion – and the hunt was finally over.
A group of researchers led by the University of Johannesburg has revealed that the explosion, called GRB 200415A, was released from a magnet – a neutron star with a strong magnetic field – located in a spiral galaxy 11.4 million light-years away. distance.
The evasive visitor flew past Mars in the early hours of April 15, which was picked up by a number of satellites, including the International Space Station, launching the search outside the Milky Way and into the distant galaxy NGC 253.
However, the explosion lasted only 140 milliseconds, but thanks to advanced orbiting tools they were able to capture more data than from the flare previously detected 13 years ago.
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A giant ignition swept through the solar system in April, sending scientists into space to investigate the origins of the high-energy explosion – and the hunt was finally over.
GRB 200415A was picked up at 4:42 a.m. ET on April 15 by satellites and was the first known giant flask to be detected since 2008 by NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope.
The recent explosion was also detected by Fermi, along with the Swift, Mars Odyssey and Wind mission satellites and the INTEGRAL satellite of the European Space Agency.
Gamma rays (GRBs) are the brightest and most energetic events in the universe.
They can only be detected when the beams are directed directly at the Earth.
The evasive visitor flew past Mars in the early hours of April 15, which was picked up by a number of satellites, including the International Space Station, launching the search outside the Milky Way and into the distant galaxy NGC 253 (artist’s impression)
GRB 200415A was picked up at 4:42 a.m. ET on April 15 by satellites and was the first known giant flask to be detected since 2008 by NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope. The recent explosion was also detected by Fermi, along with Swift, Mars Odyssey and Wind mission satellites.
Most of these occur billions of light-years away and can last from a few milliseconds to a few hours when observed from Earth.
Scientists have known for some time that supernovae discharge long GRBs, which are explosions longer than two seconds.
In 2017, a team determined that two neutron stars spiraling into each other can also emit a short GRB.
The 2017 explosion came from a safe place, 130 million light-years from Earth.
Researchers initially thought it was a short-range gamma-ray burst, but further investigation determined it came from a magnet.
Prof. Soebur Razzaque of the University of Johannesburg said: “There are tens of thousands of neutron stars in the Milky Way.”
“Of these, only 30 are currently known to be magnetic.”
“Magnets are up to a thousand times more magnetic than ordinary neutron stars.
“Most of them emit X-rays from time to time. But so far, we only know a handful of magnetists who have produced huge missiles. The brightest I could detect was in 2004. ‘
“Then GRB 200415A arrived in 2020.”
If the next giant GRB light happens closer to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, a powerful ground-based radio telescope, such as South Africa’s MeerKAT, could detect it, he says.
“This would be an excellent opportunity to study the relationship between very high energy gamma ray emissions and radio wave emissions in the second explosion. And that would tell us more about what works and doesn’t work in our model. ‘