{"id":40139,"date":"2024-04-21T09:10:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-21T14:10:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=40139"},"modified":"2024-04-21T09:10:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-21T14:10:41","slug":"cool-astro-pics-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2024\/04\/21\/cool-astro-pics-38\/","title":{"rendered":"Cool Astro Pics"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is events of this sort that serve to put the picayune machinations and beliefs of humans in<\/em> perspective<\/em>:<\/p>\n

In October of 2022, a wave of radiation washed through the solar system, more intense than anything observed before. Astronomers dubbed it the\u00a0<\/span>BOAT<\/span><\/a>, 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\u00a0<\/span>study<\/span><\/a>\u00a0published in\u00a0<\/span>Astrophysical Research Letters<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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 \u2014 and perhaps a bit of fear \u2014 of our cosmic backyard.\u00a0[“Gamma-Ray Bursts Could Wipe Out All Life, But Are Unlikely to Hit Earth<\/a>,” Max Bennett, <\/em>Discover<\/strong>]<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For an article on gamma-ray bursts (GRBs<\/strong>), it’s almost unforgivable that the magazine didn’t supply the name assigned this GRB<\/strong>, so I looked it up. This is it:<\/p>\n

GRB 221009A<\/b>\u00a0also known as\u00a0Swift J1913.1+1946<\/b>\u00a0was an extraordinarily bright and long-lasting\u00a0gamma-ray burst<\/a>\u00a0(GRB) jointly discovered by the\u00a0Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope<\/a>\u00a0on October 9, 2022. The gamma-ray burst was around seven minutes long,\u00a0but was detectable for more than ten hours following initial detection.\u00a0Despite being around two billion light-years away, it was powerful enough to affect\u00a0Earth<\/a>‘s atmosphere, having the strongest effect ever recorded by a gamma-ray burst on the planet.\u00a0The peak luminosity of GRB 221009A was measured by\u00a0Konus-Wind<\/a>\u00a0to be ~ 2.1 \u00d7 1047<\/sup>\u00a0J\/s and by Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor to be ~ 1.0 \u00d7 10\u00a0A burst as energetic and as close to Earth as 221009A is thought to be a once-in-10,000-year event.\u00a0It was the brightest and most energetic gamma-ray burst ever recorded, with some dubbing it the “BOAT<\/b>“, or\u00a0Brightest Of All Time<\/b>. [Wikipedia<\/strong><\/a>]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And the pic?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The aftermath of GRB 221009A, as seen by NASA\u2019s Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). (Credits: IXPE<\/strong>)<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0BOAT, the brightest of all time. Its source was \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40139"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40142,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40139\/revisions\/40142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}