Tuesday, May 13, 2014

PHOTOS Surprise Gamma-Ray Burst Behaves Differently Than Expected

Surprise Gamma-Ray Burst Behaves Differently Than Expected:

This artist's impression of a gamma-ray burst shows the two intense beams of relativistic matter emitted by the black hole. To be visible from Earth, the beams must be pointing directly towards us. (Image: NASA/Swift/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith and John Jones)
PHOTOS Surprise Gamma-Ray Burst Behaves Differently Than Expected
This artist’s impression shows a gamma-ray burst with two intense beams of relativistic matter emitted by the black hole. Image Credit: NASA/Swift/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith and John Jones
Roughly once a day the sky is lit up by a mysterious torrent of energy. These events — known as gamma-ray bursts — represent the most powerful explosions in the cosmos, sending out as much energy in a fraction of a second as our Sun will give off during its entire lifespan.

Yet no one has ever witnessed a gamma-ray burst directly. Instead astronomers are left to study their fading light.

New research from an international team of astronomers has discovered a puzzling feature within one Gamma-ray burst, suggesting that these objects may behave differently than previously thought.



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