'Naked eye' gamma-ray burst was aimed almost directly at the Earth

Science Centric ^ | 10 September 2008 17:00 GMT | Stanislav P. Abadjiev

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Universe's brightest explosion ever seen was observed on 19 March this year. Now a team of scientists led by Judith Racusin from the Pennsylvania State University and colleagues from around the world have combined their data from satellites and observatories to explain what happened. The observations reveal that the jets of the gamma-ray burst called GRB 080319B were aimed almost directly at the Earth. The event was so intense that, despite happening halfway across the Universe, it could have been seen briefly with the unaided eye.

Gamma-ray bursts are the Universe's most luminous explosions. Most occur when massive stars run out of fuel. As a star collapses, it creates a black hole or neutron star that, through processes not fully understood, drives powerful gas jets outward. As the jets shoot into space, they strike gas previously shed by the star and heat it, thereby generating bright afterglows.

Early in the morning of 19 March, the Swift satellite, a joint NASA/UK/Italian mission, pinpointed an extremely bright GRB towards the constellation of Boetes, and immediately sent out an alert to observatories around the world. Two robotic wide-field optical cameras in Chile also observed the brief flash: 'Pi of the Sky,' which is operated by the Centre for Theoretical Physics in Warsaw, Poland, and TORTORA camera mounted on the 0.6-m REM telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory. Within minutes many more telescopes (including NASA's Hubble Space Telescope) were observing, allowing for the most detailed study of a bright GRB ever undertaken using data from gamma-ray to radio wavelengths.

[bigheadfred]

I have been using a toilet most of my life. 0ne might think that by now I can be considered an expert, and that there would be nothing new. But I still find myself continually surprised and AMAZED...

[rdl6989]

Guilty!

[Swordmaker]

The team conclude that the extraordinary brightness of the 19 March burst arose from a narrow jet that shot material directly toward Earth at 99,99995 percent of the speed of light.

I wonder what the windage was... and talk about leading the target. The Earth was not even in the neighborhood when that gamma ray burst was "aimed" and "fired."

[Nik Naym]

“Do not stare at gamma burst with remaining eye”

[gleeaikin]

I don’t think this could be attributed to shutting down the solar spot activity. First of all the sun is in our solar system not billions of light years away. Secondly, the sun spot numbers were down before this happened.

However, SunkenCiv sent us a post about cosmic rays affecting the temperature of the stratosphere, and I wonder what affect gamma rays might have. Could this be part of the reason for our colder winter this year?