In October, astronomers detected a massive explosion that was later determined to be the most powerful one ever recorded.

It was determined to be a gamma-ray burst, given the designation GRB 221009A, which occurred as a consequence of a huge star falling into a black hole. This event was given its name. It was unclear at the time what caused the explosion to produce such a brilliant flash of light.

Now, additional study that was published in the journal Science Advances has shown that the reason it was so brilliant is because it was facing directly towards us and also drew stellar material along with it. This discovery has put light on the mystery of why it was so bright.

Hendrik Van Earthen from the University of Bath said, “The slow fade of the afterglow is not characteristic of a narrow jet of gas. Knowing this made us suspect there was an additional reason for the intensity of the explosion, and our mathematical models have borne this out.”

Astronomers discovered the most powerful explosion ever.

“Our research unequivocally demonstrates that the GRB possessed a one-of-a-kind structure,” the authors write. “The observations gradually revealed a narrow jet embedded within a wider gas outflow in a location where an isolated jet would normally be expected.”

The investigation of GRB 221009A has the potential to contribute to the advancement of the understanding of enormous gamma-ray bursts, which can emit as much energy in a short period of time as the Sun would over the course of its entire existence.

“GRB 221009A could be the equivalent of the Rosetta stone when it comes to long GRBs, compelling us to revise our standard theories of how relativistic outflows are formed in the collapse of massive stars,”

The explosion is the brightest one that has ever been observed in the cosmos; but, up until this point, its cause remained a riddle that no one could solve.

It was determined to be a gamma-ray burst, given the designation GRB 221009A, which occurred as a consequence of a huge star falling into a black hole. This event was given its name. It was unclear at the time what caused the explosion to produce such a brilliant flash of light.

Now, additional study that was published in the journal Science Advances has shown that the reason it was so brilliant is because it was facing directly towards us and also drew stellar material along with it. This discovery has put light on the mystery of why it was so bright.

Hendrik Van Earthen from the University of Bath said, “The slow fade of the afterglow is not characteristic of a narrow jet of gas. Knowing this made us suspect there was an additional reason for the intensity of the explosion, and our mathematical models have borne this out.” Our mathematical simulations have shown that this is the case.

“Our research unequivocally demonstrates that the GRB possessed a one-of-a-kind structure,” the authors write. “The observations gradually revealed a narrow jet embedded within a wider gas outflow in a location where an isolated jet would normally be expected.”

The investigation of GRB 221009A has the potential to contribute to the advancement of the understanding of enormous gamma-ray bursts, which can emit as much energy in a short period of time as the Sun would over the course of its entire existence.