Scientists unravel the mystery of the brightest explosion of light ever seen, but discover new enigmas – 04/15/2024 – Science

Scientists from two American universities — Utah and Northwestern — have discovered the cause of the brightest burst of light ever recorded.

But in doing so, they ended up coming across two bigger mysteries, including one that casts doubt on the origin of heavy elements — like gold.

Scientists discovered that the burst of light, detected in 2022, contained an exploding star at its center.

But that explosion alone would not have been enough to shine so brightly.

Current theory says that some exploding stars — known as supernovae — can also produce the Universe’s heavy elements, such as gold and platinum.

But the team of researchers found none of these elements, raising new questions about how precious metals are produced.

Professor Catherine Heymans, from the University of Edinburgh and Astronomer Royal of Scotland, who was not involved in the research, says results like these help improve science.

“The Universe is an incredible, wonderful, surprising place, and I love the way it throws these riddles at us,” she says.

“The fact that it doesn’t give us the answers we want is great, because we can go back to the drawing board, rethink everything again and come up with better theories.”

The explosion was detected by telescopes in October 2022.

It originated in a galaxy 2.4 billion light years away, emitting light at all frequencies. The explosion was especially intense in its gamma rays, which are a more penetrating form of X-rays.

The gamma ray burst lasted seven minutes and was so powerful that it went beyond the scope of astronomers, overwhelming the instruments that detected it.

Subsequent readings showed that the explosion was 100 times brighter than any ever recorded before, earning it the nickname among astronomers of the Brightest of All Time (or BOAT).

Gamma-ray bursts are associated with supernova explosions, but they are so bright that they cannot be easily explained.

The explosion was so bright that it initially overshadowed the instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The telescope only recently became operational, and this was a stroke of luck for astronomers who wanted to study the phenomenon, because explosions of this magnitude are estimated to occur only once every 10,000 years.

As the light dimmed, one of JWST’s instruments was able to see that there had indeed been a supernova explosion. But she was not as powerful as they expected.

So why did the gamma ray burst happen off scale?

Peter Blanchard, from Northwestern University in Illinois, USA, who led the research team, doesn’t know the answer to that question. But he wants to find out.

He plans to reserve more time at JWST to investigate other supernova remnants.

“It may be that these gamma ray bursts and supernova explosions are not necessarily linked together, they may be separate processes going on,” he tells BBC News.

Tanmoy Laskar, of the University of Utah and co-leader of the study, says the power of the explosion could be explained by the way the jets of material were pulverized, as typically occurs during supernovae.

If these jets are narrow, they produce a more focused and brighter beam of light.

“It’s like focusing a flashlight beam on a narrow column, as opposed to a wide beam that goes through an entire wall,” he says.

“In fact, this was one of the narrowest jets observed so far for a gamma-ray burst, which gives us an idea of ​​why the afterglow looked so bright.”

Theory rethought

But what about the absence of gold?

One theory is that one of the ways heavy elements — such as gold, platinum, lead and uranium — can be produced is during the extreme conditions created during supernovae.

They are spread throughout the galaxy and are used in the formation of planets. This is how, according to theory, the metals found on Earth appeared.

There is evidence that heavy elements can be produced when dead stars, called neutron stars, collide — a process called kilonovae — but it is believed that this way it would not be possible to create enough elements.

The team of scientists will investigate other supernova remnants to see if heavy elements can still be produced by exploding stars, but only under specific conditions.

But scientists found no evidence of heavy elements around the exploding star.

So, is the theory wrong and are heavy elements produced in some other way, or are they only produced in supernovae under certain conditions?

“Theorists need to rethink their theories and see why an event like BOAT is not producing heavy elements when theories and simulations predict it should,” says Blanchard.

The research was published in the journal Nature Astronomy.