gamma-ray burst – Astronomy Now

Hypernova sheds new light on how massive stars die

17 January 2019 Astronomy Now

Astronomers observing a hypernova 500 million light years away have found an explanation for why some generate gamma ray bursts and others do not.

Chinese astronomy satellite placed into orbit by Long March rocket

16 June 2017 Stephen Clark

China’s first X-ray astronomy satellite launched Thursday on a mission to survey the Milky Way galaxy for black holes and pulsars, the remnants left behind after a star burns up its nuclear fuel.

Mysterious cosmic explosion puzzles astronomers

3 April 2017 Astronomy Now

A mysterious flash of X-rays has been discovered by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory in the deepest X-ray image ever obtained. This source likely comes from some sort of destructive event, but may be of a variety that scientists have never seen before.

LIGO’s twin black holes might have been born inside a single star

24 February 2016 Astronomy Now

On 14 September 2015, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detected gravitational waves from the merger of two black holes 29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun. New research suggests that the two black holes might have resided inside a single, massive star whose death generated a gamma-ray burst detected by the Fermi Space Telescope.

Colliding neutron stars seeded solar nebula with heavy elements

9 December 2015 Keith Cooper

Heavy elements present at the dawn of the Solar System were produced by a nearby merger of two neutron stars, which unleashed a powerful gamma-ray burst, according to astronomers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

NASA’s Swift spots its thousandth gamma-ray burst

8 November 2015 Astronomy Now

NASA’s Swift spacecraft has detected its 1,000th gamma-ray burst (GRB). A GRB is a fleeting blast of high-energy light, often lasting a minute or less, occurring somewhere in the sky every couple of days. GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the universe, typically associated with the collapse of a massive star and the birth of a black hole.

Final kiss of two stars heading for catastrophe

21 October 2015 Astronomy Now

Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found the hottest and most massive double star with components so close that they touch each other. The two stars in the extreme system VFTS 352 could be heading for a dramatic end, during which the two stars either coalesce to create a single giant star, or form a binary black hole.