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By NASA
4 min read
NASA’s Fermi Finds New Feature in Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Seen
In October 2022, astronomers were stunned by what was quickly dubbed the BOAT — the brightest-of-all-time gamma-ray burst (GRB). Now an international science team reports that data from NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope reveals a feature never seen before.
The brightest gamma-ray burst yet recorded gave scientists a new high-energy feature to study. Learn what NASA’s Fermi mission saw, and what this feature may be telling us about the burst’s light-speed jets. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Download high-resolution video and images from NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio
“A few minutes after the BOAT erupted, Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor recorded an unusual energy peak that caught our attention,” said lead researcher Maria Edvige Ravasio at Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and affiliated with Brera Observatory, part of INAF (the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics) in Merate, Italy. “When I first saw that signal, it gave me goosebumps. Our analysis since then shows it to be the first high-confidence emission line ever seen in 50 years of studying GRBs.”
A paper about the discovery appears in the July 26 edition of the journal Science.
When matter interacts with light, the energy can be absorbed and reemitted in characteristic ways. These interactions can brighten or dim particular colors (or energies), producing key features visible when the light is spread out, rainbow-like, in a spectrum. These features can reveal a wealth of information, such as the chemical elements involved in the interaction. At higher energies, spectral features can uncover specific particle processes, such as matter and antimatter annihilating to produce gamma rays.
“While some previous studies have reported possible evidence for absorption and emission features in other GRBs, subsequent scrutiny revealed that all of these could just be statistical fluctuations. What we see in the BOAT is different,” said coauthor Om Sharan Salafia at INAF-Brera Observatory in Milan, Italy. “We’ve determined that the odds this feature is just a noise fluctuation are less than one chance in half a billion.”
A jet of particles moving at nearly light speed emerges from a massive star in this artist’s concept. The star’s core ran out of fuel and collapsed into a black hole. Some of the matter swirling toward the black hole was redirected into dual jets firing in opposite directions. We see a gamma-ray burst when one of these jets happens to point directly at Earth. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab GRBs are the most powerful explosions in the cosmos and emit copious amounts of gamma rays, the highest-energy form of light. The most common type occurs when the core of a massive star exhausts its fuel, collapses, and forms a rapidly spinning black hole. Matter falling into the black hole powers oppositely directed particle jets that blast through the star’s outer layers at nearly the speed of light. We detect GRBs when one of these jets points almost directly toward Earth.
The BOAT, formally known as GRB 221009A, erupted Oct. 9, 2022, and promptly saturated most of the gamma-ray detectors in orbit, including those on Fermi. This prevented them from measuring the most intense part of the blast. Reconstructed observations, coupled with statistical arguments, suggest the BOAT, if part of the same population as previously detected GRBs, was likely the brightest burst to appear in Earth’s skies in 10,000 years.
The putative emission line appears almost 5 minutes after the burst was detected and well after it had dimmed enough to end saturation effects for Fermi. The line persisted for at least 40 seconds, and the emission reached a peak energy of about 12 MeV (million electron volts). For comparison, the energy of visible light ranges from 2 to 3 electron volts.
So what produced this spectral feature? The team thinks the most likely source is the annihilation of electrons and their antimatter counterparts, positrons.
“When an electron and a positron collide, they annihilate, producing a pair of gamma rays with an energy of 0.511 MeV,” said coauthor Gor Oganesyan at Gran Sasso Science Institute and Gran Sasso National Laboratory in L’Aquila, Italy. “Because we’re looking into the jet, where matter is moving at near light speed, this emission becomes greatly blueshifted and pushed toward much higher energies.”
If this interpretation is correct, to produce an emission line peaking at 12 MeV, the annihilating particles had to have been moving toward us at about 99.9% the speed of light.
“After decades of studying these incredible cosmic explosions, we still don’t understand the details of how these jets work,” noted Elizabeth Hays, the Fermi project scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Finding clues like this remarkable emission line will help scientists investigate this extreme environment more deeply.”
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership managed by Goddard. Fermi was developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden, and the United States.
By Francis Reddy
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
301-286-1940
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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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Last Updated Jul 25, 2024 Related Terms
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By NASA
Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat following a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AlabamaSierra Space An element of a NASA-funded commercial space station, Orbital Reef, under development by Blue Origin and Sierra Space, recently completed a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test as part of the agency’s efforts for new destinations in low Earth orbit.
NASA, Sierra Space, and ILC Dover teams conducting a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test on Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat structure using testing capabilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Video Credits: Sierra Space This milestone is part of a NASA Space Act Agreement awarded to Blue Origin in 2021. Orbital Reef includes elements provided by Sierra Space, including the LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) habitat structure.
A close-up view of Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat, which is fabricated from high-strength webbings and fabric, after the pressurization to failure experienced during a burst test.Sierra Space Teams conducted the burst test on Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat structure using testing capabilities at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The inflatable habitat is fabricated from high-strength webbings and fabric that form a solid structure once pressurized. The multiple layers of soft goods materials that make up the shell are compactly stowed in a payload fairing and inflated when ready for use, enabling the habitat to launch on a single rocket.
A close-up view of a detached blanking plate from the Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat structure following its full-scale ultimate burst pressure test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The plate is used to test the concept of a habitat window.Sierra Space “This is an exciting test by Sierra Space for Orbital Reef, showing industry’s commitment and capability to develop innovative technologies and solutions for future commercial destinations,” said Angela Hart, manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “Every successful development milestone by our partners is one more step to achieving our goal of enabling commercial low Earth orbit destinations and expanding the low Earth orbit marketplace.”
Dr. Tom Marshburn, Sierra Space chief medical officer, speaks with members of the Sierra Space team following the burst test.Sierra Space The pressurization to failure during the test demonstrated the habitat’s capabilities and provided the companies with critical data supporting NASA’s inflatable softgoods certification guidelines, which recommend a progression of tests to evaluate these materials in relevant operational environments and understand the failure modes.
Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat following a full-scale ultimate burst pressure test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.Sierra Space Demonstrating the habitat’s ability to meet the recommended factor of safety through full-scale ultimate burst pressure testing is one of the primary structural requirements on a soft goods article, such as Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat, seeking flight certification.
Prior to this recent test, Sierra Space conducted its first full-scale ultimate burst pressure test on the LIFE habitat at Marshall in December 2023. Additionally, Sierra Space previously completed subscale tests, first at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and then at Marshall as part of ongoing development and testing of inflatable habitation architecture.
Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat on the test stand at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center ahead of a burst test. The LIFE habitat will be part of Blue Origin’s commercial destination, Orbital Reef.Sierra Space NASA supports the design and development of multiple commercial space stations, including Orbital Reef, through funded and unfunded agreements. The current design and development phase will be followed by the procurement of services from one or more companies.
NASA’s goal is to achieve a strong economy in low Earth orbit where the agency can purchase services as one of many customers to meet its science and research objectives in microgravity. NASA’s commercial strategy for low Earth orbit will provide the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost, enabling the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the Moon in preparation for Mars while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.
Learn more about NASA’s commercial space strategy at:
https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/commercial-space
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By NASA
Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft that launched NASA’s Crew Flight Test astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to the International Space Station is pictured docked to the Harmony module’s forward port. This long-duration photograph was taken at night from the orbital complex as it soared 258 miles above western China. NASA and Boeing will host a news conference with mission leadership at 11:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 25, to provide the latest status of the agency’s Boeing Crew Flight Test aboard the International Space Station. NASA previously planned an audio-only media teleconference to host the discussion.
The agency will provide live coverage on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of platforms, including social media.
Participants include:
Steve Stich, manager, NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager, Commercial Crew Program, Boeing United States-based media seeking to attend in person must contact the newsroom at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston no later than 9:30 a.m. EDT Thursday, July 25, at 281-483-5111 or jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. U.S. and international media interested in participating by phone must contact NASA Johnson or NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at ksc-newsroom@mail.nasa.gov by 10:30 a.m. the day of the event. A copy of NASA’s media accreditation policy is online.
Engineering teams with NASA and Boeing recently completed ground hot fire testing of a Starliner reaction control system thruster at White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. The test series involved firing the engine through similar in-flight conditions the spacecraft experienced during its approach to the space station, as well as various stress-case firings for what is expected during Starliner’s undocking and the deorbit burn that will position the spacecraft for a landing in the southwestern United States. Teams are analyzing the data from these tests, and leadership plans to discuss initial findings during the briefing.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams arrived at the orbiting laboratory on June 6, after lifting off aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5. Since their arrival, the duo has been integrated with the Expedition 71 crew, performing scientific research and maintenance activities as needed.
As part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, the mission is an end-to-end test of the Starliner system. Following a successful return to Earth, NASA will begin the process of certifying Starliner for rotational missions to the International Space Station. Through partnership with American private industry, NASA is opening access to low Earth orbit and the space station to more people, science, and commercial opportunities.
For NASA’s blog and more information about the mission, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/commercialcrew
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Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
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Steve Siceloff / Danielle Sempsrott / Stephanie Plucinsky
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steven.p.siceloff@nasa.gov / danielle.c.sempsrott@nasa.gov / stephanie.n.plucinsky@nasa.gov
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By European Space Agency
An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have directly imaged an exoplanet roughly 12 light-years from Earth. While there were hints that the planet existed, it had not been confirmed until Webb imaged it. The planet is one of the coldest exoplanets observed to date.
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By Space Force
The event not only marked the command’s first COR, but also SPACEFOR-INDOPAC’s first official ceremony since it’s activation in November 2022.
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