The discovery was made in a galaxy located about 3,000 million light years from Earth.
Thanks to observations made with the Gemini Sur (Chile), Nordic Optical (Spain) telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope, an international team of scientists has identified for the first time a long-duration gamma-ray burst emanating from the center of an ancient galaxy. , reports the University of Radboud, in the Netherlands.
According to the institution, the finding was made when astronomers were investigating the aftermath of a gamma-ray burst, caused by the death of a star in an ancient galaxy located some 3,000 million light-years from Earth, which was captured by the Neil Gehrels Swift Space Observatory in October 2019.
As explained by the scientists in an article published in the journal Nature Astronomy, the general consensus was that long-duration gamma-ray bursts, lasting at least a few seconds, occur after the collapse of massive stars or when colliding stars of neutrons that have revolved around each other for a long time.
However, astronomers detail, in old galaxies, such as the one in which the phenomenon was observed, there are very few heavy stars that could have collapsed into supernovae, so their observations suggest that “it is a case of fusion of two “separate neutron stars. So these are not neutron stars that have been together all their lives,” said Andrew Levan, co-author of the paper. “We suspect that the neutron stars were pulled together by the gravity of the many surrounding stars in the center of the galaxy,” he added.
Despite the results obtained, the scientists also consider the possibility that these outbursts have been produced by the collision of compact objects, such as black holes or white dwarfs, which is why, they consider, it is necessary to continue with the investigations to identify with certainty the origin of the radiation.
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Source: RT
