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Astronomers all over the globe observed the aftereffects of a supernova explosion. This very rare occurrence took place in a galaxy 2 billion miles from Earth. And the pulsing high-energy gamma-ray burst (GRB) passed through our solar system on October 9th. 

The blast triggered the detectors like NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, on Wind spacecraft, and the Submillimeter Array radio telescope atop Mauna Kea, in Hawaii.

 When these space telescopes are triggered, they automatically turn towards the emission site to continue observation. 

Powerful supernova explosion

The supernova explosion visible from Earth was named GRB 221009A.

The Swift Observatory caught sight of the light show with electronic tools specifically designed to find and analyze gamma-ray bursts.

Meanwhile, a gathering of gamma-ray astronomers at the 10th International Fermi Symposium in Johannesburg, South Africa, October 9 through 15, 2022 watched the event in real-time.

Judy Racusin, a Fermi project coordinator and scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, attended the conference.

“It’s safe to say this meeting kicked off with a bang. Everyone’s talking about this.” 

"It's a very unique event," Yvette Cendes, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, reported.

"It's like pointing a telescope at the sun," Cendes explained. "It saturated the detectors." 

According to NASA, the blast "ranks among the most luminous events known." 

The huge gamma-ray light show

Space scientists say supernovas are created by the collapse and explosion of enormous stars.

Only the most massive stars go supernova. They are usually about 8 times the size of the Earth’s sun. But to produce a powerful gamma-ray burst, the exploding star must be at least 30 to 40 times the size of our sun.

The tremendous explosion happened 2 billion light-years from Earth. And the energy and light have been traveling through space for eons.

Gamma rays radiate on the spectrum of AM and FM radio, or x-rays. It is not dangerous to humans since it has been spread and dissipated through space for a billion light years.

These types of star explosions are extremely rare. Every hundred years or so a star in our Milky Way galaxy go supernova. But a supernova that leaves trackable gamma-ray burst, like GRB 221009A, explodes only every million years in a medium-sized galaxy like ours,  Cendes explains.