Astronomers are baffled after spotting a mysterious repeating series of gamma-ray bursts beyond our galaxy.
The unexplained phenomenon repeated multiple times throughout a single day, an occurrence unlike anything previously observed.
The discovery is fascinating, as gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) signal the catastrophic destruction of stars lasting milliseconds to minutes. Therefore, they should not repeat or persist for a day as this one did.
As the most powerful explosions in the Universe, they can signify massive stars perishing in violent blasts or being torn apart by black holes, among other events.
The origin of the intense radiation was found to be beyond our Milky Way, its position identified by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) said: “Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the Universe, normally caused by the catastrophic destruction of stars. But no known scenario can completely explain this new GRB, whose true nature remains a mystery.”
This GRB is “unlike any other seen in 50 years of GRB observations,” according to Antonio Martin-Carrillo, an astronomer at University College Dublin, Ireland, and co-lead author of a study on this signal recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
“This is 100 to 1000 times longer than most GRBs,” said Andrew Levan, an astronomer at Radboud University, The Netherlands, and co-lead author of the study.
“More importantly, gamma-ray bursts never repeat since the event that produces them is catastrophic,” Martin-Carrillo pointed out.
Dr. Martin-Carrillo further stated: “We keep collecting more data. Determining the true distance of this event will be key to measuring its true energy and will help us improve our physical modeling.”
“We are still not sure what produced this or if we can ever really find out, but with this research, we have made a huge step forward towards understanding this extremely unusual and exciting object.”