Dazzling star explosion blinds satellite
July 16th, 2010 - 9:12 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattNew York, July 16 (THAINDIAN NEWS) On Wednesday, astronomers experienced the brightest star explosion ever seen till now. The explosion was so bright, that it temporary blinded the satellite that was recording the event.
Scientists believe that a star that died about 5 billion years ago, caused the spectacle.
Observers of the spectacle said that the intensity of the explosion was unexpected. The brightness was so intense, that the software of the Swift satellite ignored the incident as an abnormality.
Swift has been on the lookout for star explosion since 2005 and this explosion called GRB 100621A is the brightest that the Swift has ever recorded. “Just when we were beginning to think that we had seen everything that gamma-ray bursts could throw at us, this burst came along to challenge our assumptions about how powerful their X-ray emissions can be,” according to Neil Gehrels, who is Swift’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
During the life of a star, it reaches a point that it must die and after the star dies, then it explodes and releases radiations of Gama and X rays that create the bright explosion. Scientists said that the Gamma rays reach the Earth first before the X-rays.
Scientists believe the spectacle is 140 brighter than the brightest continuous X-ray source in space. British and American astronauts studied the new explosion.
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Tags: abnormality, american astronauts, astronomers, blinds, brightest star explosion, gama, gamma ray bursts, gamma rays, goddard space flight, goddard space flight center, life of a star, nasa, principal investigator, radiations, ray emissions, space flight center, spectacle, swift satellite, x ray, x rays