GRB 221009A

GRB 221009A also known as Swift J1913.1+1946 was an unusually bright and long-lasting gamma-ray burst (GRB) detected by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory on October 9, 2022. The gamma-ray burst lasted for more than ten hours since detection,[1][2] and could briefly be observed by amateur astronomers.[3] This is also one of the closest gamma-ray bursts and is among the most energetic and luminous bursts.[4] It is a rare opportunity for researchers to study it and events like it in detail.[5] GRB 221009A came from the constellation of Sagitta and occurred an estimated 1.9 billion years ago,[5] at a distance of 2.4 billion light-years away from Earth.[6]

GRB 221009A
Ten-hour timelapse of GRB 221009A, as seen by the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope
Duration10 hours
ConstellationSagitta
Right ascension19h 13m 03.48s
Declination+19° 46′ 24.6″
Distance2.4 billion light years
Redshift0.151
Other designationsSwift J1913.1+1946

The burst oversaturated the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope,[7] which captured photons whose energies exceeded 100 GeV.[8] The Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) in China saw 5,000 high-energy photons. (For comparison, in the entire history of the study of gamma-ray bursts, astronomers have detected only hundreds of these.) Some photons even carried a record 18 TeV of energy,[9][3] which is more than can be produced at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN).[6] Russia's Carpet-2 facility may have recorded a single 251-TeV photon from this burst.[7] This event could help physicists study how matter interacts at relativistic speeds,[5] and potentially physics beyond the Standard Model.[7]

Optical afterglow of GRB 221009A imaged by amateur astronomer using remote telescope

GRB 221009A could be caused by a dying massive star undergoing a supernova,[3] or the birth of a black hole.[8] Some physicists speculate that such exceptionally high-energy photons could come from new physics involving dark matter,[7] axions or decaying sterile neutrinos.[10] Lightning detectors in India and Germany picked up signs of Earth's ionosphere being perturbed for several hours by the burst, though only mildly.[7][4] Some astronomers referred to the burst as the "brightest of all time", or "BOAT".[7][11] The afterglow at X-ray energies is a hundreds of times brighter than seen before.[12]

GRB 221009A was subsequently observed by the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER),[5] the Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI), the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE),[13] the International Gamma-ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), the XMM-Newton space telescope,[14] and many others.[6]


  • 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, October 14, 2022.[15]


See also

References
  1. Dichiara, S.; Gropp, J. D.; Kennea, J. A.; Kuin, N. P. M.; Lien, A. Y.; Marshall, F. E.; Tohuvavohu, A.; Williams, M. A.; Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory Team (2022). "Swift J1913.1+1946 a new bright hard X-ray and optical transient". The Astronomer's Telegram. 15650: 1. Bibcode:2022ATel15650....1D.
  2. Starr, Michelle (October 12, 2022). "Scientists Just Detected a Colossal Gamma-Ray Burst, And It's a Record-Breaker". ScienceAlert. Retrieved October 14, 2022.
  3. Ahmed, Issam (October 16, 2022). "Astronomers are captivated by brightest flash ever seen". AFP. Phys.org.
  4. Plait, Phil (October 21, 2022). "The Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Recorded Rattled Earth's Atmosphere". Scientific American.
  5. Reddy, Francis (October 13, 2022). "NASA's Swift, Fermi Missions Detect Exceptional Cosmic Blast". NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
  6. Sullivan, Will (October 21, 2022). "This Powerful Gamma-Ray Blast Was the 'Brightest of All Time'". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  7. "Brightest-Ever Space Explosion Could Help Explain Dark Matter". Quanta Magazine. October 26, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  8. Nemiroff, Robert; Jerry, Bonnell (October 15, 2022). "GRB 221009A". Astronomy Picture of the Day. NASA. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  9. Sahu, Sarira; Medina-Carrillo, B.; Sánchez-Colón, G.; Rajpoot, Subhash (2023). "Deciphering the ∼18 TeV Photons from GRB 221009A". The Astrophysical Journal Letters. 942 (L30): L30. arXiv:2211.04057. Bibcode:2023ApJ...942L..30S. doi:10.3847/2041-8213/acac2f. S2CID 253397820.
  10. Smirnov, A.Y.; Trautner, A. (2022). "GRB 221009A Gamma Rays from Radiative Decay of Heavy Neutrinos?". arXiv:2211.00634 [hep-ph].
  11. Miller, Katrina (October 2022). "The 'Brightest of All Time' Gamma-Ray Burst Sparks a Supernova Hunt". Wired. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  12. "Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Yet Lit Up the Sky". Sky & Telescope. October 17, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  13. Maginot, Hannah (December 29, 2022). "NASA's IXPE Quickly Observes Aftermath of Incredible Cosmic Blast – "This Is Now or Never"". SciTech Daily. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  14. "ESA spacecraft catch the brightest ever gamma-ray burst". European Space Agency. October 21, 2022. Retrieved January 12, 2023.
  15. "Telescopes Standing Sentry". NOIRLab. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
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