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TODAY: Giant flare sweeps through solar system after powerful explosion, scientists say
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Such explosions could affect phone signal today, and help us understand the very beginnings of the universe
The source of a huge flare that swept through our solar system has been pinpointed by scientists.
The discovery could help the understanding of gamma-ray bursts, the most powerful explosions in the universe.
Earth is hit by mild and short gamma-ray bursts regularly, on most days. But more rarely there are vast explosions, like the newly examined GRB 200415A, which bring with them a lashing of energy more powerful than our own Sun.
The flare seems to have emerged from an unusual, powerful neutron star known as a magnetar, scientists report in new findings published in Nature Astronomy.
“Our sun is a very ordinary star. When it dies, it will get bigger and become a red giant star. After that it will collapse into a small compact star called a white dwarf,” said Soebur Razzaque from the University of Johannesburg, who led the research.
Such stars instead explode into a supernova, and then leave behind a small compact star known as a neutron star. They are tiny – they could be packed into a space 12 miles across – but are so dense that a spoonful would weigh tons.
[link to www.independent.co.uk (secure)]
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