November 2, 2024

Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst of All Time Challenges Element Formation Theories

Artists visualization of GRB 221009A revealing the narrow relativistic jets– emerging from a main black hole– that gave increase to the GRB and the broadening remains of the original star ejected via the supernova explosion.”When we validated that the GRB was produced by the collapse of a massive star, that gave us the opportunity to evaluate a hypothesis for how some of the heaviest elements in the universe are formed,” stated Northwesterns Peter Blanchard, who led the research study. “We did not see signatures of these heavy elements, recommending that exceptionally energetic GRBs like the B.O.A.T. do not produce these elements.– Peter Blanchard, CIERA Postdoctoral FellowAstrophysicists have actually hypothesized that heavy elements also might be produced by the collapse of a quickly spinning, massive star– the precise type of star that generated the B.O.A.T. Using the infrared spectrum obtained by the JWST, Blanchard studied the inner layers of the supernova, where the heavy elements should be formed.”Reference: “JWST detection of a supernova associated with GRB 221009A without an r-process signature” by Peter K. Blanchard, V. Ashley Villar, Ryan Chornock, Tanmoy Laskar, Yijia Li, Joel Leja, Justin Pierel, Edo Berger, Raffaella Margutti, Kate D. Alexander, Jennifer Barnes, Yvette Cendes, Tarraneh Eftekhari, Daniel Kasen, Natalie LeBaron, Brian D. Metzger, James Muzerolle Page, Armin Rest, Huei Sears, Daniel M. Siegel and S. Karthik Yadavalli, 12 April 2024, Nature Astronomy.DOI: 10.1038/ s41550-024-02237-4The study, “JWST detection of a supernova associated with GRB 221009A without an r-process signature,” was supported by NASA (award number JWST-GO-2784) and the National Science Foundation (award numbers AST-2108676 and AST-2002577).

Harvard & & Smithsonian; University of Utah; Penn State; University of California, Berkeley; Radbound University in the Netherlands; Space Telescope Science Institute; University of Arizona/Steward Observatory; University of California, Santa Barbara; Columbia University; Flatiron Institute; University of Greifswald and the University of Guelph.”This event is particularly amazing since some had hypothesized that a luminous gamma-ray burst like the B.O.A.T. could make a great deal of heavy components like gold and platinum,” stated 2nd author Ashley Villar of Harvard University and the Center for Astrophysics