Astronomers witnessed something remarkable in 2022: a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) so strong that it changed Earth’s upper atmosphere and saturated detectors. This is the biggest explosion that NASA has spotted since the Big Bang. Known as the Brightest of All Time (BOAT), it was the brightest GRB seen about 2.4 billion light-years away. What happened was that many of the gamma-ray instruments in space were overpowered by the extreme brightness. This gave scientists a chance to observe it so that they could comprehend the reason behind such brightness and its origin.
How the B.O.A.T. came about: Its birth and origin
The International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral), which was deployed in 2002, has taken the responsibility and has been discovering gamma-ray bursts daily. However, from all it has discovered, GRB 221009A drew most of researchers’ attention. Mirko Piersanti, University of L’Aquila, Italy, and lead author of the team, said it was the brightest they have ever detected.
In a scientific research report by Northwestern Now, it was reported that BOAT’s birth came about when it saturated most gamma-ray detectors in space, and as mentioned before, it happened 2.4 billion light-years away from Earth and lasted only a few hundred seconds in duration. Wen-fai Fong, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a member of CIERA, said,
“As long as we have been able to detect GRBs, there is no question that this GRB is the brightest we have ever witnessed by a factor of 10 or more.”
Some researchers expressed their gratitude towards modern technology and how it has made it easy for scientists to witness some of these amazing occurrences that transpire, giving them room to study, express, and tell the world more about these findings. One of the researchers said:
“It’s so exciting to observe such a rare astronomical phenomenon as the B.O.A.T. and work to understand the physics behind this exceptional event.”
Understanding the 2.4-billion-year journey of the ancient light
It just hit the Earth, but it started so long ago. Although this discovery came to our attention in 2022, it is an ancient light. The explosion transpired approximately 1.9 billion years ago. The temporal lag was caused because the light had to travel and reach Earth. Research claims that light moves at the finite speed of 299,792 kilometres per second in the vacuum of space.
A GRB with the intensity of GRB 221009A only reaches Earth once every 10,000 years. Scientists confirmed that since the striking of the light, the universe has expanded due to the vast distance. A theory and phenomenon causing such an expansion is called the Redshift, and it determines the age and distance of cosmic events.
The force behind the explosion: The last hours of a star
It is believed that GRB 221009A’s formation and creation are a result of the collapse of a huge star, which caused the supernova and black hole to develop. Therefore, what happens is that this process then releases a great amount of energy, which then leads to a concentrated jet of gamma rays that can be identified as a GRB if it is oriented towards Earth.
NASA spotted the biggest explosion since the Big Bang. However, Mirko expressed that there have been some concerns regarding the effects of this gamma-ray burst in our galaxy. This is what experts believe regarding this discovery: The worst-case scenario might be the burst harming the ozone layer and the ionosphere. This means UV radiation from the sun will access the earth and cause harm, because the ozone layer protects us from the harmful radiation that the sun emits.