Podcaster: Richard Drumm
Title: UNAWE Space Scoop – Fireworks in the Universe With a Record and a Twist
Organization: 365 Days Of Astronomy
Link : http://365daysofastronomy.org/ ; https://www.spacescoop.org/en/scoops/2112/the-missing-tatooines-out-there/
Description: Space scoop, news for children.
Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, are huge explosions at the heart of distant galaxies — in fact, the most energetic and brightest events in the whole Universe! These bursts can last from a few milliseconds to several hours.
Astronomers classify these events into two general categories:
- Short GRBs that last less than two seconds and are believed to result from the merging of neutron stars. And…
- Long GRBs that last longer than two seconds and are believed to start with supernova explosions, caused by the death of massive stars.
A team using the Gemini North Observatory has just found that gamma-ray bursts do not always fit the boxes astronomers have created for them. They saw a 0.6-second GRB coming from a supernova explosion in a distant galaxy. At less than 2 seconds duration it should be the result of a neutron star merger, not a supernova! So it’s the shortest ever seen of its kind!
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Bio: Richard Drumm is President of the Charlottesville Astronomical Society and President of 3D – Drumm Digital Design, a video production company with clients such as Kodak, Xerox and GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. He was an observer with the UVa Parallax Program at McCormick Observatory in 1981 & 1982. He has found that his greatest passion in life is public outreach astronomy and he pursues it at every opportunity.
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Transcript:
This is the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast. Today we bring you a new episode in our Space Scoop series. This show is produced in collaboration with Universe Awareness, a program that strives to inspire every child with our wonderful cosmos.
Today’s story is…
Fireworks in the Universe With a Record and a Twist
Have you ever heard of gamma-ray bursts?
Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs, are huge explosions at the heart of distant galaxies — in fact, the most energetic and brightest events in the whole Universe!
These bursts can last from a few milliseconds to several hours.
Astronomers classify these events into two general categories: – Short GRBs that last less than two seconds and are believed to result from the merging of neutron stars. And…
– Long GRBs that last longer than two seconds and are believed to start with supernova explosions, caused by the death of massive stars.
A team using the Gemini North Observatory has just found that gamma-ray bursts do not always fit the boxes astronomers have created for them.
They saw a 0.6-second GRB coming from a supernova explosion in a distant galaxy.
At less than 2 seconds duration it should be the result of a neutron star merger, not a supernova! So it’s the shortest ever seen of its kind!
Oops!
This GRB is thinking outside the box!
Scientists believe that supernova GRBs like this are this short because their gamma-ray jets are not strong enough to entirely escape the imploding star, almost failing to create a GRB!
Some collapsing stars have such weak jets that they don’t even produce gamma-ray bursts at all.
There’s a tweak to the story: the discovery can help explain a mystery in astronomy.
Long GRBs are normally believed to come from a specific kind of supernova, Type Ic-BL.
However, there are many more of these supernovae than there are long GRBs.
Maybe these supernovae could be hiding short GRBs instead of the long ones astronomers would expect to find.
So it’s likely that many of the short GRBs aren’t from neutron star mergers after all, but supernovas! They’re misclassified!
And maybe sorting gamma-ray bursts by their duration isn’t the best way to classify them. There’s a lot more to look for when it comes to what causes these bursts!
Hey, Here’s a cool fact!
Gamma-ray bursts are extremely rare phenomena.
But when they do happen, they release an incredible amount of energy.
In just a few seconds, a typical gamma-ray burst can release more energy than our Sun will in its 10-billion year lifetime!
Boom!
Thank you for listening to the 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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