Brightest light in space ever "caught on camera"
- Published
Did you know light is "energetic"?
Well, some scientists have captured the "most energetic" form of light ever seen.
Two distant, but super powerful, cosmic explosions known as 'gamma-ray bursts' were detected by Nasa scientists at University College London, using the space telescope on board Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory.
Gamma-ray bursts, or cosmic bangs, are one of the most powerful explosions of energy in the universe.
The two explosions took place in galaxies billions of light-years away.
The second of the bursts, which was captured in January, produced light containing about 100 billion times as much energy as light visible to the human eye.
Gamma-ray bursts happen almost every day, without warning, and these scientists only had a few seconds to catch it!
Just 50 seconds after satellites spotted the January explosion, telescopes on Earth swivelled to catch a flood of thousands of particles of light.
"Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions known in the universe and typically release more energy in just a few seconds than our sun during its entire lifetime," David Berge, a gamma-ray scientists said. "They can shine through almost the entire visible universe."
- Published17 December 2014