Astronomers catch gamma rays from space: Significant contribution of Indian scientists

- Extremely energetic gamma rays are emitted at the death of a giant star in space

- For the first time, some astronomers in the world, including India, have caught a very subtle flash of gamma rays from space, which is considered to be very energetic.

The flickering of gamma rays lasted only a second.

Astronomers have been able to detect the gamma rays on August 9, 2020 with the help of NASA's Fermi Gamma Space Telescope. According to astronomers, the flash of gamma rays was caused by the death of a giant star in space. Moreover, it was the most subtle of the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB).

Details released by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) state that the research paper was published in Nature Astronomy on July 7, 2021.

In addition to Shashibhushan Pandey of the Aryabhata Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES-Eris-Nainital) in India, this important research includes the Institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DTS), Inter University and Inter University (Inter University). IUCAA-IUCA-Pune), National Center for Radio Astrophysics-Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-Pune) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) .-Mumbai) scientists have made a fundamental contribution.

Details from the research paper say that we saw that glimmer of gamma rays from space billions of light years away from the Earth. Let's say it was accelerated by a telescope. According to astronomers, there are two types of gamma rays. One is shortbase burst and the other is long base burst. Typically, such gamma ray flashes last less than two seconds. We have been able to accelerate long base bursts that occur at the time of the death of a supermassive star. However, short base bursts are caused by other types of events.