Astronomers from the University of Toronto record ghostly traces of a cosmic explosion

A team of researchers from the University of Toronto has successfully recorded a sound boom emanating from an extremely strong cosmic explosion that has remained invisible. Previously, this phenomenon was theorized as an "orphan persistence" and now, by recording this boom, the team of astronomers finally detected it.

During the research, astronomers initially found an empty space in which was located a star located 280 million light years from Earth. After the gigantic Gamma Ray Burst (GRB), the cosmic body is transformed into a magnetar or a black hole. Although no trace of his last explosive moments has been found, this ghostly silence has made astronomers more excited about the phenomenon. It should be noted that a burst of gamma rays is so powerful that it would release the same amount of energy that the sun generates over a period of 10 billion years.

"We compared images from old maps of the sky and found a radio source that was no longer visible today in the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS). Looking at the radio source in other old data, we see that it lived in a relatively close galaxy, and in the 1990s it was as bright as the largest known bursts of gamma-ray bursts, "said Casey Law. astronomer at the University of California.

Bryan Gaensler of the University of Toronto also shared his enthusiasm and revealed that it was the first time that anyone was able to capture the sound boom of an unexpected explosion of GRB. In addition, he stated that the previous explosion of the sonic boom had completely disappeared when she had been seen from the Earth.

"This is the first time anyone ever manages to capture the sound boom of an unexpected explosion of GRB. In the past, people have either witnessed the explosion, witnessed a boom or on one or two occasions, witnessed a boom, then looked back and recovered the explosion after the fact. But here we have seen the boom, and yet the previous blast seems completely absent from Earth, "Gaensler said.

The new discovery made by these astronomers should lead to revolutionary changes in studies on gamma-ray flares. Experts believe that detecting a sonic boom resulting from an invisible cosmic explosion could provide more relevant details about the nature of gamma-ray bursts and how it is emitted.