BRIGHTEST OF ALL TIME (B.O.A.T.)

IN OCTOBER 2022, AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM OF RESEARCHERS, INCLUDING U ASTROPHYSICIST TANMOY LASKAR , OBSERVED THE BRIGHTEST GAMMA-RAY BURST (GRB) EVER RECORDED, GRB 221009A.

Now, physicists have confirmed that the phenomenon responsible for the historic burst—dubbed the B.O.A.T. (“brightest of all time”)—is the collapse and subsequent explosion of a massive star. The team discovered the explosion, or supernova, using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

“We had to wait several months for conditions to be right,” says Laskar of the supernova discovery. “Gamma-ray bursts have powerful jets, and when these jets crash into the surrounding material, they light up brightly at all wavelengths of light, from radio waves to X-rays. This is called the afterglow.”

Once the afterglow faded, researchers took a spectrum in infrared light using JWST that would tell them what elements were present in the explosion. While the team’s discovery of the supernova as the cause for B.O.A.T. solves one mystery, another mystery deepens. The researchers speculated that evidence of heavy elements, such as platinum and gold, might reside within the newly uncovered supernova. The extensive search, however, did not find the signature that accompanies such elements.

The origin of heavy elements in the universe continues to remain one of astronomy’s biggest open questions. <

This report stems from an article by Northwest University and an interview of Laskar in @TheU.