Hubble Observes the Most Powerful Gamma Ray Burst Ever Detected

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are one of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, and also one of the least researched. These explosions of energy occur when a massive star goes supernova and emits twin beams of gamma rays that can be seen billions of light-years away. Because they are closely tied with the formation of black holes, scientists have been eager to study this rare occurrence in greater detail.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Hubble Observes the Most Powerful Gamma Ray Burst Ever Detected

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are one of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, and also one of the least researched. These explosions of energy occur when a massive star goes supernova and emits twin beams of gamma rays that can be seen billions of light-years away. Because they are closely tied with the formation of black holes, scientists have been eager to study this rare occurrence in greater detail.

more…

> This included NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope, as well as the ground-based twin Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) telescopes

Swift was designed with exactly this purpose in mind. It narrows down the location of the source enough for other wide angle telescopes such as Fermi to narrow down the location even more. But even Fermi’s positioning capability is often not fine enough for Hubble, so other telescopes are needed.

I don’t know MAGIC. Oh yes, this one. Note how it doesn’t need a light-rejecting cover. I assume that’s because it only observes rapid transient events occurring at close to the speed of light, so can subtract off the steady-state background.