GRB 080916C is a

gamma-ray burst In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten milli ...

(GRB) that was recorded on September 16, 2008, in the

Carina Carina may refer to: Places Australia * Carina, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina Heights, Queensland, a suburb in Brisbane * Carina, Victoria, a locality in Mildura Serbia * Carina, Osečina, a village in the Kolubara District ...

constellation and detected by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope 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 ...

. It is the most powerful gamma-ray burst ever recorded. The explosion had the energy of approximately 9000

type Ia supernova A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...

if the emission was isotropically emitted, and the gas jets emitting the initial gamma rays moved at a minimum velocity of approximately 299,792,158 m/s (0.999999 c), making this blast the most extreme recorded to date.Most Extreme Gamma-ray Blast Ever, Seen By Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope

Science Daily ''Science Daily'' is an American website launched in 1995 that aggregates press releases and publishes lightly edited press releases (a practice called churnalism) about science, similar to Phys.org and EurekAlert!. The site was founded by mar ...

, February 19, 2009Huge gamma-ray blast spotted 12.2 bln light-years from earth
AFP, February 19, 2009 The 16.5-second delay for the highest-energy gamma ray observed in this burst is consistent with some theories of

quantum gravity Quantum gravity (QG) is a field of theoretical physics that seeks to describe gravity according to the principles of quantum mechanics; it deals with environments in which neither gravitational nor quantum effects can be ignored, such as in the vi ...

, which state that all forms of light may not travel through space at the same speed. Very-high-energy gamma rays may be slowed down as they propagate through the quantum turbulence of

space-time In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three-dimensional space, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Minkowski diagram, Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize S ...

.Most Powerful Gamma-Ray Burst May Point to New Physics

Sky and Telescope ''Sky & Telescope'' (''S&T'') is a monthly American magazine covering all aspects of amateur astronomy, including the following: *current events in astronomy and space exploration; *events in the amateur astronomy community; *reviews of astronomi ...

, February 19, 2009New telescope finds strange behavior in gamma-ray bursts, and also documents the most energetic burst known

Science News ''Science News (SN)'' is an American bi-weekly magazine devoted to articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. History ''Science News'' has been published since 1 ...

, February 20, 2009 The explosion took place 12.2 billion

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s (

light travel distance Distance measures are used in physical cosmology to give a natural notion of the distance between two objects or events in the universe. They are often used to tie some ''observable'' quantity (such as the luminosity of a distant quasar, the ...

) away. That means it occurred 12.2 billion years ago—when the universe was only about 1.5 billion years old. The burst lasted for 23 minutes, almost 700 times as long as the two-second average for high energy GRBs. Follow-up observations were made 32 hours after the blast using the Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND) on the 2.2 metre telescope at the

European Southern Observatory The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, commonly referred to as the European Southern Observatory (ESO), is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental research organisation made up of 16 mem ...

La Silla La Silla may refer to: * La Silla Observatory, an astronomical observatory in Chile * Cerro de la Silla, a mountain and natural monument located within the metropolitan area of the city of Monterrey, Nuevo León, in northeastern Mexico. * La Sill ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, allowing astronomers to pinpoint the blast's distance to 12.2 billion light years.Fermi’s record breaking gamma-ray burst

Astronomy Now ''Astronomy Now'' is a monthly British magazine on astronomy and space. According to the Royal Astronomical Society, ''Astronomy Now'' is the "principal amateur astronomy magazine in Britain" with a reputed circulation of 24,000. The magazine f ...

, February 20, 2009 The object's redshift is z = 4.35. If all that energy from GRB 080916C could be captured and converted into usable electricity at 100% efficiency, it would produce enough electricity to supply the entire planet Earth with 13.5 octillion years of power (according to electricity consumption of 2008).

References

External links

Fermi Observations of High-Energy Gamma-Ray Emission from GRB 080916C

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

, February 19, 2009
Telescope spies cataclysmic blast

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...

, February 20, 2009
NASA's Fermi Telescope Sees Most Extreme Gamma-ray Blast Yet

, February 19, 2009
Record Cosmic Explosion Brightens Student's First Day
Newswise, February 19, 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:GRB 080916C 080916C 20080916 September 2008 events Carina (constellation)

See also

References

External links