Earth was hit by an unusual cosmic explosion

This gamma ray explosion can change the way we've understood the most powerful explosions in the universe yet.

It used to be believed that GRBs could happen only by the destruction of mass stars, but astronomers now believe that such explosions can occur even by the unification of two neutro stars.

With the discovery of a 50 - second gamma ray explosion in December 2021, scientists searched for the next “scale”, which is a huge burst of light that precedes a supernova.

Instead, they found evidence of a kilanova, a rare event that takes place after the alignment of a neutron star or another star or a black hole.

“This event represents a thrilling change in the paradigm of gamma ray astronomy,” said Jillian Rusty, a doctoral candidate at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University, who conducted the study.

GRBs are divided into two classes: those that last less than two seconds, called short GRBs and longer-terms, long GRBs. /a2cn