Thaindian News

August 19, 2010 (Pen Men at Work): NASA Scientists have finally managed to solve the cosmic mystery which had been haunting them for almost 35 years now. The short gamma ray bursts or the powerful flashes of light lasts for a millionth of a second but are brighter than a thousand suns. These flashes had been too quick for catching them but the scientists have managed to do so now!

The reason for these short gamma rays can be explained in two different ways. They arise either by the collision of a neutron star and the black hole which then engulfs the star and becomes bigger or by the collision of two different neutron stars which then results in the formation of a black hole.

These rays are the most powerful explosions known to mankind and can occur in any part of the space. The first short gamma ray burst had been detected in 1960. The NASA scientists needed to coordinate with each other before they could solve the mystery of the short gamma flashes satisfactorily. Both ground based telescopes as well as NASA satellites were used in the process.

The scientists have also found out that the bigger bursts last around 2 seconds and occur when two extraordinarily massive stars collide together. More than 30% of the flashes are however, much short lived and last for a much lesser period below 2 seconds.

The discovery of the Magnestar has also succeeded in challenging the age old theory about black holes. The astronomers have calculated the mass of the original star as being almost 40 times bigger than that of the sun. The collapsing of stars usually lead to a black hole but the formation of a neutron star is something that has astonished the scientists.

The study was conducted under the leadership Dr Ben Ritchie and had been published in the journals of Astronomy and Astrophysics.