Gamma-ray bursts file photo
Our universe is not as peaceful as it appears in the night sky. Extreme bursts, catastrophes and destruction can happen anywhere at any Time. This time, astronomers may have detected a huge gamma-ray burst from a nearby magnetar, releasing about 100,000 years of solar energy in 140 milliseconds.
Magnetars are the strongest natural magnets in our universe. Their magnetic field is 100 billion times stronger than that of the Earth, or 10 billion times stronger than the magnetic suction commonly found on refrigerators.
Magnetars are fast-spinning neutron stars that are the corpses of stars that died in extreme explosions called supernovas.
“Our sun is a very ordinary star. When it dies, it gets bigger and becomes a red giant. After that, it collapses into a small dense star called a white dwarf.” But stars that are much heavier than the Sun end up differently,” said Professor Soebur Razzaque of the University of Johannesburg. “
“Magnetars have a magnetic field a thousand times higher than that of ordinary neutron stars.” Razzaque said.
“There are thousands of neutron stars in our galaxy.” Razak added, “Of these, only 30 are currently known to be magnetars.”
One of the co-authors of the new study, Professor Eric Burns of Louisiana State University, said at the 237th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society, “Once magnetars are born, they stay in the galaxy for only about 10,000 years before their magnetic fields gradually weaken and become relatively ordinary neutron stars. They will only stay for about 10,000 years.”
Scientists analyzed the extremely bright gamma burst GRB200415A, detected on April 15, 2020. gamma bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe. They can emit as much energy in a few seconds as the Sun does in its lifetime.
At its peak, GRB200415A emits 3.6 million times more light than the Sun “This releases about 100,000 years of solar energy in just 140 milliseconds.” said Kevin Hurley, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley, in a news release.
The scientists located the newly discovered GRB 200415A at the center of the nearby Sculptor galaxy (formally known as NGC 253), which is about 11.4 million light-years from Earth, in the direction of the constellation Sculptor. Most previously detected GRBs originate at much greater distances, typically in the billions of light-years, so on cosmic scales GRB200415A is a neighboring gamma burst.
GRB200415A lasted only 140 milliseconds, about the blink of an eye. said Oliver Roberts, an astrophysicist at the Space Studies Association at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, who led another new study of GRB200415A.
Very interestingly, unlike typical gamma-ray bursts, the light-change profile of GRB200415A is very similar to that of a powerful magnetar flash.
“GRB200415A is the first time ever that the first and second blasts of a flash-through process have been detected.” Razak said.
Scientists believe that the powerful magnetar burst is a “starshock,” a breakup of the magnetar’s solid shell. The quake was huge, 27.8 magnitude, about 1 trillion billion billion trillion trillion times stronger (1 followed by 27 zeros) than “the largest known earthquake, the 9.5 magnitude earthquake in Chile in 1960.” Hurley said.
Burns said the new findings suggest that only a small fraction of the known short bursts of gamma rays may be caused by giant electromagnetic flares.
The new findings were published in two papers in the Jan. 14 issue of Nature and in a paper in the Jan. 13 issue of Nature Astronomy.
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