Illustration of a Short Gamma-Ray Burst Caused by a Collapsing Star (IMAGE)
Caption
This illustration depicts a collapsing star that is producing two short gamma-ray jets. Just before a massive, collapsing star explodes as a supernova, we often observe a gamma-ray burst (a brief explosion of gamma-ray radiation) if the jets are pointed toward Earth. Most known supernova-produced gamma-ray bursts are “long” (lasting more than two seconds), but one called GRB 200826 was “short” (lasting just 0.6 second). Astronomers think this, and possibly other short supernova-produced gamma-ray bursts, appeared short because the jets of gamma rays aren’t strong enough to completely escape the star. This would produce jets that are shorter in both length and duration.
Credit
International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva Image processing: M. Zamani (NSF's NOIRLab)
Usage Restrictions
licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and hence may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible. Details on how to interpret this are given below for those who need further explanation.
License
Original content