Astronomers fascinated by the brightest flash of light ever seen

The brightest flash of light ever seen in space is currently fascinating astronomers around the world. The flash gave energy equal to 18 tera-electron volts – that’s an 18 followed by twelve zeros.

The flash of light originated about 2.4 billion light-years from Earth – presumably during the formation of a black hole, as American astrophysicist Brendan O’Connor told the AFP news agency.

The flash of light was first recorded by space telescopes on October 9. It consists of gamma rays, the most intense form of electromagnetic radiation. The afterglow of the flash of light is still observed by scientists around the world.

The flash of gamma rays lasted several hundred seconds, O’Connor said. It probably formed when giant stars more than 30 times the size of our sun died. The stars therefore exploded in a supernova and then collapsed into a black hole.

A ring of matter forms around the black hole, which is absorbed and then emitted again in the form of energy. A speed of 99.99 percent of the speed of light is reached.

The flash of light breaks all records, “both in the amount of photons,” ie light particles, “and the energy of the photons reaching us,” said O’Connor, who observed the phenomenon with the Gemini South telescope in Chile. “Something so bright, so close, is really a once-in-a-century event.”

“The burst of gamma rays generally releases in a few seconds the same amount of energy that our sun produces throughout its life,” said O’Connor, explaining the magnitude of the flash. And this is also the strongest of all the gamma-ray bursts ever seen.

The rays formed an estimated 1.9 billion years ago and have now reached the field of view of astronomers after a long journey through space. As the universe expands, the point of origin is now even further from Earth.

O’Connor and his colleagues plan to continue monitoring the phenomenon, dubbed GRB221009A, over the coming weeks to see if their theory about the flash is correct. Amateur stargazers can no longer observe the phenomenon with their equipment; only the actual flash of light would have been visible to them, but not its afterglow. (aeg/sda/afp)