Things boom in space.
Astronomers observed a huge boom on October 19th. NASA's Swift Observatory, which is designed to spot the most powerful explosions in the universe, detected an extremely strong burst. Scientists say the jets of energy that travel through space are caused by the collapse and explosion of huge stars.
It must be at least eight times the size of the sun for a star to explode. The star of a supernova needs to be at least 30 to 40 times the size of the sun. This new powerful detection, so rare that we'll probably only see it once a decade, came from a mighty star.
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics astronomer said that it was a very unique event.
It's important that you don't worry. The explosion happened in a distant universe. The energy that has traveled and spread through space poses no danger to us. We can see it with satellites.
The equivalent of getting front row seats at a fireworks show is what it is.
The radiation spectrum is the same for radio, x-rays, and visible light as it is for AM and FM radio.
"This is incredibly, incredibly rare."
Astronomers have never seen a burst of radiation in our area. Stars aren't very common. A star in our universe will blow up. A huge star, the type that's needed to make an extremely bright and long burst, only explodes once every million years in a medium-sized galaxy like ours.
"It's incredibly rare," said Cendes.
There are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the deepest part of the universe. There aren't many opportunities for such an event to happen near us. To detect it, you have to be facing the direction of the funnel of energy that came from the blast.
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An artist's conception of a gamma-ray burst from an exploding star. Credit: NASA / ESA /. M. Kornmesser
The instruments built to detect these signals are very sensitive. This detection was so intense and bright because it was close.
It's similar to pointing a telescope at the sun. The detectors were saturated. NASA said that the blastranks among the most illuminating.
You might wonder what will happen to the star after it explodes. It may have turned into a black hole. NASA says that most black holes are formed from the remnants of a large star that died.
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NASA's Swift telescope captured the "afterflow" of the powerful gamma-ray burst about an hour after the agency detected the event. Credit: NASA / Swift / A. Beardmore (University of Leicester)
There are black holes. Black holes are places where matter has been crunched down into a small area. Earth would be under an inch across if it were hit by a black hole. The object would hold the entire mass of our planet. Light can't escape in a place with a strong pull. Things with a lot of mass have more strength.
Astronomers are using powerful telescopes to watch the aftermath of the burst.
The universe keeps going. A star is no longer with us. There is a hole. It all happens some 2 billion light-years away.
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