NASA telescopes detect record-breaking gamma-ray burst; blast likely signals birth of black hole

On the morning of Sunday, October 9, an unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation swept over Earth. According to astronomers, the emission came from a gamma-ray burst (GRB), the most powerful class of explosions in the universe, and was detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and Wind spacecraft and other telescopes around the world.

NASA says that another GRB this bright may not appear for decades.

Called GRB 221009A, the explosion appeared in the constellation Sagitta and travelled an estimated 1.9 billion years to reach Earth. Astronomers believe that the cosmic blast signals the birth cry of a new black hole in a massive star collapsing under its own weight.

In these circumstances, a nascent black hole drives powerful jets of particles travelling near the speed of light. The jets pierce through the star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays as they stream into space, NASA explained.

Preliminary analysis reveals that Fermi’s Large Area Telescope (LAT) detected the burst for more than 10 hours. One reason for the burst’s brightness and longevity is that, for a GRB, it lies relatively close to us.

"This burst is much closer than typical GRBs, which is exciting because it allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see. But it's also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting," said Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member who led initial communications about the burst and a doctoral student at the Polytechnic University of Bari, Italy.

This week started with a bang — a record-breaking gamma-ray burst caught by our Fermi and Swift telescopes, among others. The blast likely signaled the birth of a black hole in a collapsing star nearly 2 billion years ago. More: https://t.co/GOnsPrsVxF pic.twitter.com/yJI2whqGuY

— NASA BOOniverse 👻 (@NASAUniverse) October 13, 2022