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Giant eruption that swept through Mars comes from a powerful neutron star in a galaxy 11.4 million light-years from Earth
- A giant eruption was detected in April by NASA satellites as it swept through Mars
- Scientists say it came from a powerful neutron star 11.4 million light years away
- This is the strongest burst detected since 2008 by NASA satellites
- Dubbed GRB 200415A, it lasted for milliseconds, but the updated instruments were able to capture enough data to follow a path to where it came from.
A giant eruption that swept through the solar system in April sent scientists on a deep investigation into space to uncover the origin of the high-energy explosion – and the hunt is finally over.
A group of researchers led by the University of Johannesburg revealed that the explosion, dubbed GRB 200415A, was released by a magnetar – a neutron star with a strong magnetic field – located in a spiral galaxy at 11.4 million d ‘light years.
The elusive visitor flew over Mars in the early hours of April 15 which was picked up by a number of satellites, including the International Space Station, sparking the search outside the Milky Way and toward the distant galaxy NGC 253.
The burst, however, only lasted 140 milliseconds, but thanks to advanced orbital instruments, they were able to capture more data than in the previous rocket detected 13 years ago.
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A giant eruption swept through the solar system in April that sent scientists into space to find the origin of the high-energy explosion – and the hunt is finally over.
GRB 200415A was picked up at 4:42 a.m. ET on April 15 by satellites and was the first known giant rocket to be detected since 2008 by NASA’s Fermi Gamma Space Telescope.
The recent burst was also detected by Fermi, along with the Swift, Mars Odyssey and Wind mission satellites and the European Space Agency’s INTEGRAL satellite.
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the brightest and most energetic events in the universe.
These can only be detected when the beams are aimed directly at Earth.
The elusive visitor flew over Mars in the early hours of April 15 which was picked up by a number of satellites, including the International Space Station, sparking the search outside the Milky Way and toward the distant galaxy NGC 253 (impression of artist)
GRB 200415A was picked up at 4:42 a.m.ET on April 15 by satellites and was the first known giant rocket to be detected since 2008 by NASA’s Fermi Gamma Space Telescope. The recent burst was also detected by Fermi, along with the Swift, Mars Odyssey and Wind mission satellites.
Most of them take place billions of light years away and can last from milliseconds to hours when viewed from Earth.
Scientists have known for some time that supernovas spout long GRBs, which are bursts of longer than two seconds.
In 2017, a team determined that two neutron stars spiraling into each other could also emit a short GRB.
The 2017 burst came from a security 130 million light years from Earth.
Researchers initially believed it was a short gamma-ray burst, but after further investigation determined it was from a magnetar.
Professor Soebur Razzaque of the University of Johannesburg said: “In the Milky Way, there are tens of thousands of neutron stars”.
“Of these, only 30 are currently known to be magnetars.
“Magnetars are up to a thousand times more magnetic than ordinary neutron stars.
“Most emit x-rays from time to time. But so far we only know of a handful of magnetars that have produced giant eruptions. The brightest we could detect was in 2004. ”
“Then GRB 200415A arrived in 2020.”
If the next giant GRB rocket hits closer to our home galaxy, the Milky Way, a powerful ground-based radio telescope like MeerKAT in South Africa may be able to detect it, he says.
“It would be an excellent opportunity to study the relationship between very high energy gamma ray emissions and radio wave emissions during the second explosion. And that would tell us more about what works and what doesn’t in our model.
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