Scientists Find Hidden Signal in Epic Cosmic Explosion

"When I first saw that signal, it gave me goosebumps."

Gamma Quadrant

The gamma ray burst nicknamed the BOAT, or brightest of all time, was so powerful — and the data it yielded so overwhelming — that it still has scientists' heads spinning in its afterglow nearly two years later.

And now, in a study published in the journal Science, a team of researchers say they've found something in the explosion that we've never seen before, which could help explain why the gamma ray burst appeared to be so powerful.

"A few minutes after the BOAT erupted, Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor recorded an unusual energy peak that caught our attention," said study lead author Maria Edvige Ravasio at Radboud University in the Netherlands, in a NASA release. "When I first saw that signal, it gave me goosebumps. Our analysis since then shows it to be the first high-confidence emission line ever seen in 50 years of studying GRBs."

Jet Set

The BOAT was detected in October of 2022, the apparent result of a massive star going supernova and collapsing into a black hole. At the time, this released so much energy that it practically blinded NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

But now, the researchers say they've found a hidden peak of energy in the GRB's initial burst. It appeared about five minutes in, lasted around 40 seconds, and in that short period reached an astonishing energy peak of around 12 million electron volts. Visible light, for reference, only ranges between two to three electron volts.

What helped power this emission is just as incredible. According to the researcher's findings, it's overwhelmingly likely that it was produced by the annihilation of matter and antimatter.

As the star's core collapsed into a black hole, its outer material was blown out into space, along with powerful jets, or particle streams, that shot in opposite directions.

Inside one of these jets, they believe, an electron and an antimatter electron, or positron, collided, releasing enormous amounts of energy — around half a million electron volts, explained study coauthor Gor Oganesyan at Gran Sasso Science Institute in Italy.

Blinding Lights

That raw power was amplified even further because the jet was traveling straight at us, which increased the frequency of the gamma rays.

"Because we're looking into the jet, where matter is moving at near light speed, this emission becomes greatly blueshifted and pushed toward much higher energies," explained Oganeysan.

In other words, the BOAT wasn't quite as powerful as it appeared. Don't let that underwhelm you, though, because the gamma ray burst is still absolutely spectacular. And because we got such a good view of it, it'll continue to yield plenty more insights in the future.

"After decades of studying these incredible cosmic explosions, we still don't understand the details of how these jets work," Elizabeth Hays, Fermi project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, said in the release. "Finding clues like this remarkable emission line will help scientists investigate this extreme environment more deeply."

More on space: Scientists Analyzing Deep Space "Forest" to Map Dark Matter