GRB 230307A was an extremely

bright Bright may refer to: Common meanings *Bright, an adjective meaning giving off or reflecting illumination; see Brightness *Bright, an adjective meaning someone with intelligence People * Bright (surname) * Bright (given name) *Bright, the stage na ...

, long duration

gamma-ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant Galaxy, galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme Electromagnetic radiation, ele ...

(GRB), likely produced as a consequence of a

neutron star merger A neutron star merger is the stellar collision of neutron stars. When two neutron stars fall into mutual orbit, they gradually inspiral, spiral inward due to the loss of energy emitted as gravitational radiation. When they finally meet, their me ...

or black hole - neutron star merger event. It lasted around three minutes, and was observed to have a gamma ray fluence of 3×10⁻⁴

erg The erg is a unit of energy equal to 10−7joules (100Nano-, nJ). It is not an SI unit, instead originating from the centimetre–gram–second system of units (CGS). Its name is derived from (), a Greek language, Greek word meaning 'work' or ' ...

cm⁻² in the 10 to 1000

KeV In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum. When us ...

(

electronvolt In physics, an electronvolt (symbol eV), also written electron-volt and electron volt, is the measure of an amount of kinetic energy gained by a single electron accelerating through an Voltage, electric potential difference of one volt in vacuum ...

) range making it second only to GRB 221009A, which was an extremely bright and long duration

gamma ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are extremely energetic events occurring in distant galaxies which represent the brightest and most powerful class of explosion in the universe. These extreme electromagnetic emissions are second ...

deemed to be the Brightest Of All Time. The burst was around 1000 times more powerful than a typical gamma-ray burst. The burst had the second-highest gamma-ray fluence ever recorded. The

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

( JWST) detected the chemical signature for

tellurium Tellurium is a chemical element; it has symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur, all three of which are chalcogens. It is occasionally fou ...

(Te). The

neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...

s were once part of a

spiral galaxy Spiral galaxies form a galaxy morphological classification, class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''

(host galaxy) but were kicked out via

gravitational In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force be ...

interactions. Then while outside of the main

galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...

at a distance of 120,000

light years A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astro ...

, they merged, creating GRB 230307A. 230307A is the second brightest gamma ray burst detected in more than 50 years of observations and is located behind the Magellanic Bridge. Despite its long duration, it is most likely the result of the compact merger of a binary ejected from a galaxy in the local universe (redshift z=0.065). The observation of the spectra of heavy elements

and

lanthanide The lanthanide () or lanthanoid () series of chemical elements comprises at least the 14 metallic chemical elements with atomic numbers 57–70, from lanthanum through ytterbium. In the periodic table, they fill the 4f orbitals. Lutetium (el ...

was reported from the settling dust of the event.

Discovery

At 15:44:06 UT on 7 Mar 2023, the

Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, also FGRST), formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is ...

(GBM) triggered and located GRB 230307A . at the same time, the

Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor Gravitational Wave High-energy Electromagnetic Counterpart All-sky Monitor (GECAM) () is a space observatory composed of a constellation of two X-ray and gamma-ray all-sky observing small satellites, called GECAM A (aka KX 08A or Xiaoji, COSPAR 202 ...

light curve shows a roughly fast rise and exponential decay (FRED) shape with a possible precursor, with a total duration of ~100 sec. At 2023-03-07T15:44:09Z UT (

Solar Orbiter The Solar Orbiter (SolO) is a Sun-observing probe developed by the European Space Agency (ESA) with a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) contribution. Solar Orbiter, designed to obtain detailed measurements of the inner heli ...

onboard time), Spectrometer Telescope for Imaging X-rays (STIX) detected GRB 230307A. The gamma-ray burst signal can be clearly seen in the STIX quick-look light curves in the range between 10 - 84 keV. The GRB has a single peak and a duration of about 40 seconds. The AGILE team also reported hours, T0 =15:44:06 (UTC) The event lasted about 30 s and it released a total number of 527069 counts in the MCAL detector (above a background rate of 1154 Hz), and 920952 counts in the AC Top detector (above a background rate of 2959 Hz). The 2001 Mars Odyssey's

Gamma Ray Spectrometer A gamma-ray spectrometer (GRS) is an instrument for measuring the distribution (or spectrum—see figure) of the intensity of gamma radiation versus the energy of each photon. The study and analysis of gamma-ray spectra for scientific and techni ...

on Mars also reported it within 12 hours resulting in precisely estimating its incoming direction through Interplanetary Network

triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle m ...

. Tellurium (Te) in GRB 230307A was discovered in 2023 by using the James Webb's Space Telescope's ( JWST) mid infrared data. JWST obtained mid-infrared (mid-IR) imaging and spectroscopy 29 and 61 days after the burst.

References

{{2023 in space Long-duration gamma-ray bursts Astronomical objects discovered in 2023 Mensa (constellation) March 2023

Discovery

See also

References