Thanks to a fast reaction by observers and staff, near-simultaneous observations were made of GRB221009A from Gemini South in Chile. The image is a combination of 4 exposures in I, J,H, K with two instruments taken in the morning of Friday 14 October 2022.
News — A titanic cosmic explosion triggered a burst of activity from astronomers around the world as they raced to study the aftermath from what is one of the nearest and possibly the most-energetic gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever observed. Just-released observations by two independent teams using the telescope in Chile — one of the twin telescopes of the operated by’s — targeted the bright, glowing remains of the explosion, which likely heralded a supernova giving birth to a black hole.
The GRB, identified as GRB 221009A, occurred approximately 2.4 billion light-years away in the direction of the constellation . It was first detected the morning of 9 October by X-ray and gamma-ray space telescopes, including NASA's , , and the spacecraft.
As word of this detection quickly spread, two teams of astronomers worked closely with staff at the Gemini South to obtain the earliest-possible observations of the afterglow of this historic explosion.
In the early-morning hours of Friday, 14 October, two Rapid Target of Opportunity imaging observations were conducted by two independent teams of observers led by graduate students Brendan O'Connor (University of Maryland/George Washington University) and Jillian Rastinejad (Northwestern University). The observations occurred mere minutes apart. The first observation used the instrument, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph. The other observation used the (GMOS).
The teams now have access to both datasets for their analyses of this energetic and evolving event.
“The exceptionally long GRB 221009A is the brightest GRB ever recorded and its afterglow is smashing all records at all wavelengths,” said O'Connor. “Because this burst is so bright and also nearby, we think this is a once-in-a-century opportunity to address some of the most fundamental questions regarding these explosions, from the formation of black holes to tests of dark matter models.”
Thanks to the fast reaction of observers and staff, combined with the use of Gemini Director's Discretionary Time and efficient data-reduction software like Gemini’s (Fast Initial Reduction Engine), this image was quickly produced soon after the observations.
“The agility and responsiveness of Gemini’s infrastructure and staff are hallmarks of our observatory and have made our telescopes go-to resources for astronomers studying transient events,” said Gemini Chief Scientist Janice Lee.
Already communications have gone out to fellow astronomers through the NASA , the archive of which is now filling up with from around the world. Astronomers think it represents the collapse of a star many times the mass of our Sun, which in turn launches an extremely powerful supernova and gives birth to a black hole 2.4 billion light-years from Earth.
“In our research group, we’ve been referring to this burst as the ‘BOAT’, or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart,” said Rastinejad. “Gemini’s sensitivity and diverse instrument suite will help us to observe GRB221009A’s optical counterparts to much later times than most ground-based telescopes can observe. This will help us understand what made this gamma-ray burst so uniquely bright and energetic."
When black holes form, they drive powerful jets of particles that are accelerated to nearly the speed of light. These jets then piece through what remains of the progenitor star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays as they stream into space. If these jets are pointed in the general direction of Earth, they are observed as bright flashes of X-rays and gamma rays.
Another gamma-ray burst this bright may not appear for decades or even centuries and the case is still evolving. Of note are other extraordinary reports of affecting long wave radio transmissions from the energetic radiation from the GRB221009A event. Scientists are also wondering how very-high-energy 18 TeV (tera-electron-volt) photons could defy our standard understanding of physics and survive their 2.4 billion year journey to Earth.
This event, because of its relative proximity to Earth, is also a unique opportunity to better understand the origin of the elements heavier than iron and whether they all come or also from collapsing stars that trigger GRBs.
“The Gemini observations will allow us to utilize this nearby event to the fullest and seek out the signatures of heavy elements formed and ejected in the massive star collapse,” said O’Connor.
Notes
[1] The “Target of Opportunity” observing mode allows observation of targets that cannot be specified in advance but have a well defined external trigger. Examples include following up newly detected supernovae or gamma-ray burst afterglows or observing a particular class of objects from an ongoing imaging survey.
[2] Rapid short “telegram-style” communications from the two teams through the NASA Gamma-ray Coordinates Network from and from .
[3] For comparison, the most powerful collision in the Large Hadron Collider at so far had an energy of only 13 TeV.
More information
(National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory), the US center for ground-based optical-infrared astronomy, operates the international (a facility of , , , , , and ), Kitt Peak National Observatory (), Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (), the Community Science and Data Center (), and (in cooperation with ’s National Accelerator Laboratory). It is managed by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy () under a cooperative agreement with and is headquartered in Tucson, Arizona. The astronomical community is honored to have the opportunity to conduct astronomical research on Iolkam Du’ag (Kitt Peak) in Arizona, on Maunakea in Hawai‘i, and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón in Chile. We recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that these sites have to the Tohono O'odham Nation, to the Native Hawaiian community, and to the local communities in Chile, respectively.
Links
- NASA Gamma-ray Coordinates Network Circular 32749 (Jillian Rastinejad & W Fong (Northwestern Univ)):
- NASA Gamma-ray Coordinates Network Circular 32750 (Brendan O'Connor (UMD/GWU) et al.):
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