GRBs, long duration Gamma Ray Bursts
Inconsistencies with current theories.
- At 10-50 times the size of the sun, the object was smaller than expected.
- At 3.8 billion light-years away, the object was closer than expected.
- At 20 hours, the duration was far longer than what was thought possible.
GRB’s, or gamma-ray bursts, are blasts of gamma-ray radiation that have been categorized as short duration and long duration, with the dividing point being around two seconds.
Scientists have decided that the brightness of the event can be explained by the direction nature, rather than radiating in a spherical pattern, GRB’s radiate in a north and south pole pattern.
Detected in April, 2013, the event was named GRB 130427A and lasted 20 hours. We suppose the cause to be a star that exhausted its store of hydrogen, fused into helium and other elements, exploding then collapsing to form a black hole.
Nuclear Fusion – Wikipedia
Other October, 2013 observations found remnants of a supernova at GRB 130427A’s location. The evidence pointed to the explosion of a star with at least 20 to 30 times the sun’s mass.
Prior observations have always been of much ‘older’ bursts, but we first became aware of GRB’s in 1967 when an early satellite used to detect nuclear explosions on earth surprised observers with GRB’s from outer space.
Scientists build increasingly ‘swift’ and directional equipment to detect gamma-ray bursts. Little history has been de-classified on the geo-political reactions, but most accounts describe that the event was anomolous with typical nuclear tests and quickly discounted as evidence of a terrestrial thermo-nuclear blast.