Astronomers Spot The Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Seen But Can't Explain It

Archean

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Astronomers Spot The Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Ever Seen But Can't Explain It

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[LEFT]On April 27, several satellites — including NASA's Swift satellite and Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope — observed an unusually bright burst of gamma radiation. The explosion unleashed an energetic jet of particles that traveled at nearly the speed of light, researchers said.[/LEFT]
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[LEFT]"We suddenly saw a gamma-ray burst that was extremely bright — a monster gamma-ray burst," study co-author Daniele Malesani, an astrophysicist at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said in a statement. "This [was] one of the most powerful gamma-ray bursts we have ever observed with the Swift satellite."[/LEFT]
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Scientist: Woah, that was one wicked gamma ray!
Undergrad student: Amazing! Just like the model, huh?
Scientist: Not exactly...
Undergrad student: What?! Why?
Scientist: *shrugs* Dunno.
Media: ....Print this -- now.
 
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