Thursday Throughput: Big Whomping Space Explosion Edition

X-ray light of GRB 221009A scatters off dust grains in the Milky Way, resulting in unusual rings on X-ray images taken by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. NASA / Swift / A. Beardmore (Univ. of Leicester)

[ThTh1] So this is research that I am somewhat involved in:

An unprecedentedly bright gamma-ray burst (GRB) lit up the gamma-ray sky on October 9th. The burst, cataloged as GRB 221009A, exploded in a galaxy about 2 billion light-years away — close for a GRB. Its brightness and proximity spurred astronomers worldwide to monitor the event from both ground and space.

This event likely belongs to the class of long GRBs, the end-of-life phase of an extremely rare set of massive stars. Once a massive star reaches a point in which the nuclear reactions in its core can no longer produce enough energy to support it, it collapses. If that star is rotating rapidly, the explosion releases material into space in the form of two opposite and narrow jets moving just shy of the speed of light. And if one of those jets points toward us, we see a burst of gamma rays, typically lasting for several minutes. A longer-lived fading afterglow, observable across the electromagnetic spectrum, often follows the initial burst.

GRB 221009A was so intense that it temporarily blinded multiple sensitive gamma-ray detectors in space. It’s the brightest GRB detected so far. The energy released by the burst, which researchers were able to estimate thanks to the measured distance to the burst, also puts it among the most energetic GRBs known.

The picture below was produced by my colleague Andy Beardmore from Swift data. It shows the X-rays scattering off dust grains in our own galaxy.

X-ray light of GRB 221009A scatters off dust grains in the Milky Way, resulting in unusual rings on X-ray images taken by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory. NASA / Swift / A. Beardmore (Univ. of Leicester)

We detected stupidly-powerful gamma rays from this thing. The blast was so intense that, even two billion light years away, we could measure the effects on our ionosphere. In fact, it was so bright, we didn’t think it was a GRB at first. It turned out, it exploded while Swift was on the other side of the Earth. What we initially detected was the leftover explosion almost an hour after it went off.

Now this GRB does not produce any danger to us. GRBs are extremely rare and one would have be both nearby (within a few tens of thousand of light years) and pointed right at us to be dangerous. But this was the brightest burst seen in Fermi’s 14 years of looking at them. And, had we been on the right side of the Earth, it probably would have been the brightest Swift has seen in its 18 years in orbit. The universe is still surprising us. And we’re going to learn a lot from this bright bad boy.

[ThTh2] Within the cells of your body are these little organelles called mitochondria. These generate the ATP molecules that power your cells. What’s interesting is that their own genome. It’s generally accepted that, at some early point in our evolution, mitochondria fused with our cells and became symbiotic. The genome within is inherited only from your mother as the sperm cell’s mitochondria are thrown away. A few years ago, however, it was found that some people have some paternal mitochondrial DNA, which was baffling.

We may now have an explanation. It looks like, occasionally, some mitochondrial DNA gets incorporated into the nuclear DNA. It may be particularly likely to happen when DNA is damaged and the mitochondrial DNA fills the gap like a bandaid. In other words, your mom’s cells may be fixing your DNA boo-boos.

[ThTh3] You may have heard this week that snow crab populations have collapsed and Alaska has called off the hunting season. Is it climate change? Probably, but there’s a lot more to it.

[ThTh4] Sometimes black holes burp.

[ThTh5] This is more or less accurate. Jupiter has a whole system orbiting it.

Jupiter has 80 known moons in a wide range of sizes and shapes. This video compares their size using Manhattan, NYC and part of the New York state as a reference

[full video, HD, MetaBallStudios: https://t.co/nIz0Yp3nuP] pic.twitter.com/pPq5qUTyGF

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 9, 2022

[ThTh6] If we’re going to get to a carbon-free future, we’re going to need a serious revolution in battery tech. Our current batteries are not the kind of thing that’s sustainable on a global scale. NASA may be making some breakthroughs on that. If solid-state batteries work out, it would be the biggest revolution in the tech in a century.

[ThTh7] Today in bad headlines. No nitrous oxide doesn’t prove there are drug-doing aliens out there. It may, however, be a biosignature for some form of extraterrestrial life.

[ThTh8] And in yet more bad headlines … ah, they changed it, thankfully. CNN’s initial headline said colonoscopies don’t work to prevent colon cancer. And, indeed the study they cite showed they don’t work … for people who don’t get them. For people who do, it cuts the risk of cancer by 30% and the chance of colon cancer death by 50%. So, yeah, if you’re over 50, let them put the tube up your butt. I’ve done it. You’re asleep so you don’t even notice.

[ThTh9] We’ve known for a long time that the moon formed from the debris scattered outward when the primordial Earth was hit by a Mars-sized planetoid. But new simulations show that process may have taken mere hours.

[ThTh10] The replication crisis is real, although it varies a lot by discipline.

[ThTh11] And let’s close out this week with yet another JWST image that will blow your socks off.

The Pillars of Creation are set off in a kaleidoscope of color in NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s near-infrared-light view. The pillars look like arches and spires rising out of a desert landscape, but are filled with semi-transparent gas and dust, and ever changing. This is a region where young stars are forming – or have barely burst from their dusty cocoons as they continue to form.
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI).