It is events of this sort that serve to put the picayune machinations and beliefs of humans in perspective:
In October of 2022, a wave of radiation washed through the solar system, more intense than anything observed before. Astronomers dubbed it the BOAT, the brightest of all time. Its source was an unusually close brush with a gamma-ray burst, a 1-in-10,000-year event, according to a 2023 study published in Astrophysical Research Letters.
Fortunately for life on Earth, the confined nature of the beams means that a direct collision would be very unlikely. Nonetheless, the elusive nature of gamma-ray bursts ensures that they will continually inspire awe — and perhaps a bit of fear — of our cosmic backyard. [“Gamma-Ray Bursts Could Wipe Out All Life, But Are Unlikely to Hit Earth,” Max Bennett, Discover]
For an article on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), it’s almost unforgivable that the magazine didn’t supply the name assigned this GRB, so I looked it up. This is it:
GRB 221009A also known as Swift J1913.1+1946 was an extraordinarily bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst (GRB) jointly discovered by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on October 9, 2022. The gamma-ray burst was around seven minutes long, but was detectable for more than ten hours following initial detection. Despite being around two billion light-years away, it was powerful enough to affect Earth‘s atmosphere, having the strongest effect ever recorded by a gamma-ray burst on the planet. The peak luminosity of GRB 221009A was measured by Konus-Wind to be ~ 2.1 × 1047 J/s and by Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor to be ~ 1.0 × 10 A burst as energetic and as close to Earth as 221009A is thought to be a once-in-10,000-year event. It was the brightest and most energetic gamma-ray burst ever recorded, with some dubbing it the “BOAT“, or Brightest Of All Time. [Wikipedia]
It’s fascinating that we live in a Universe where such extraordinary power can be naturally focused and released, endangering the integrity of anything in its path.
And the pic?
