Scientists are taking a closer look at the afterglow left by the brightest gamma-ray burst ever recorded, and what they see doesn't fit with any theoretical models.
The brightest gamma-ray burst ever detected is revealing new mysteries as scientists study it in greater detail.
"[I]t is very difficult for existing models to replicate the slow evolution of the energy peaks that we observed," James Leung , a doctoral student at the University of Sydney who co-authored the Nature Astronomy paper, said in a statement."This means we have to refine and develop new theoretical models to understand these most extreme explosions in the Universe."
While the burst itself lasted just a few seconds, it left behind an"afterglow" of emissions across the light spectrum that may persist for years, Tara Murphy , an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney and co-author of the arXiv study, said in the statement. Initially, there is a bright forward shock caused by the materials ejected by the gamma-ray burst, Leung added, followed by a reverse shock back into the cloud of ejecta. Both shocks contribute to the afterglow.
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