Astronomers Detect Mysterious Explosion That Defies All Patterns

Bright Side

Something really weird happened out in space, and astronomers are totally baffled. A strange cosmic explosion lit up the sky, and it might be a super-rare event where everything lined up perfectly — or it could be something completely new that no one’s ever seen before! It’s called EP240408a, and it was first spotted by the Einstein Probe, an X-ray space telescope, on April 8, 2024. At first, it looked like your typical gamma-ray burst, which usually blasts out insanely bright X-rays. But the more scientists looked, the more things didn’t add up. Now everyone’s wondering if we just witnessed something brand new in the universe!  Credit: CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/: Gemini South: by International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Paredes, https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab-gemini-sunset-28/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gemini_South_in_sunset_(noirlab-gemini-sunset-28).jpg Blue Optical Transient: by NASA, ESA/Hubble, STScI, A. Chrimes (Radboud University), https://esahubble.org/images/heic2309c/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hubble_image_of_a_Luminous_Fast_Blue_Optical_Transient_(LFBOT)_-_annotated_(heic2309c).tiff?page=1 Sirius: by Pablo Carlos Budassi, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sirius.png Tde-simulation: by Danieljamesprice, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tde-simulation.jpg Survey camera: by DOE/FNAL/DECam/R. Hahn/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noirlab2118c/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dark_Energy_Survey_camera_(DECam)_(noirlab2118c).tiff CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/: Einstein Probe: by China News Service, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Einstein_Probe_illustration.png Antennas at Narrabri: by John Masterson, CSIRO, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_3881_Five_Antennas_at_Narrabri.jpg FBOTvsGRBvsSN: by Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF, https://public.nrao.edu/news/new-class-cosmic-explosions/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FBOTvsGRBvsSN.jpg telesopes near Datil: by Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VLA_(Very_Large_Array)_radio_telesopes_near_Datil,_New_Mexico_(7334023798).jpg Einstein Probe Transient: by The Astrophysical Journal Letters, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ada7f5#apjlada7f5f2 What Are Gamma-ray Bursts?: by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14738#media_group_376792 Wavelengths of Light: by NASA, ESA, CSA, Leah Hustak (STScI), https://webbtelescope.org/contents/media/images/01F8GFCZKYPF3XJ2MTZ2N4ZQ6D Black Hole Accretion: by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13326#media_group_322603 Isolated Black Hole: by NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC), https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/14620#media_group_374803 Black Hole Devouring A Star: by NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab, https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10807/#media_group_351451 Animation is created by Bright Side.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV  Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  Our Social Media:  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightplanet/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en   Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.

Transcript

00:01I don't want to freak you out, but something bizarre has erupted in the depths of space.

00:06It was an explosion brighter than billions of suns.

00:09But the real mystery is that it doesn't match anything astronomers have ever seen.

00:14Usually, cosmic events like this follow familiar patterns.

00:18But not this one.

00:20It's a cosmic anomaly.

00:22This strange cosmic explosion has left astronomers totally baffled.

00:27It could be a super-rare event where everything lines up just right.

00:31Or it could be something completely new, never seen before.

00:36This event was first detected by an X-ray space telescope called the Einstein probe on April

00:428, 2024.

00:44It first appeared to be a regular gamma-ray burst.

00:47Those typically give off incredibly bright X-rays.

00:51But could the answer really be so simple?

00:54Something didn't add up.

00:56Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe.

01:00And they can happen in unusual ways.

01:03Long-duration gamma-ray bursts are caused by the demise of massive stars that spin incredibly

01:08quickly.

01:09When these stars run out of fuel, their cores collapse under gravity, forming an extremely

01:15dense object like a black hole.

01:18At the same time, the outer layers of the star are blown away in a massive explosion called

01:23a supernova.

01:25Gamma-ray bursts are followed by jets.

01:28Those are twin beams of material shooting out from opposite sides of the collapsing object.

01:33They're super-fast, moving at nearly the speed of light.

01:37These jets appear brighter if they're pointed directly at us.

01:40It's like how a flashlight beam is brightest when it's aimed straight at you rather than

01:45at an angle.

01:47Now, back to our unusual cosmic explosion.

01:50Remember me telling you something wasn't adding up?

01:52Hey, it was just 45 seconds ago!

01:55Well, the problem was that when multiple telescopes observed this event in different wavelengths

02:00– ultraviolet, optical, near-infrared, radio X-rays, gamma rays, you name it – it didn't

02:07match any known type of event.

02:10The most likely explanation, according to current research, is that this explosion is the result

02:15of a white dwarf star being torn apart by a medium-sized black hole.

02:20And still, it's not so simple.

02:23Black holes are areas in space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light,

02:28can escape.

02:29That's why they're called black holes.

02:32It's believed that stars with at least three times the mass of our Sun can collapse under

02:37their own gravity once they run out of their stellar fuel.

02:41When a star has so much mass packed into such a small space, its gravity becomes so powerful

02:46that it forces everything, including atoms, to squish together.

02:51This intense density leads to the formation of a black hole.

02:55So when a white dwarf star is torn apart by a medium-sized black hole, it results in a high-speed

03:01jet of material that can be aimed directly at Earth.

03:05So could this space disaster be the reason behind our mysterious event?

03:11Unfortunately, even though it ticks some boxes for several types of phenomena, including the

03:16one involving a white dwarf, it still doesn't fit all the criteria for any of them.

03:22The event's short duration and high luminosity are hard to explain using any scenarios we can

03:28produce.

03:29So, does it mean we have come across something completely new?

03:33The Universe is full of energetic flashes caused by outbursts from stars and black holes, supernova

03:39explosions, stars being eaten by black holes, and other cosmic events.

03:45Astronomers usually figure out what these events are by analyzing their duration, frequency, source,

03:51and the specific combination of wavelengths they emit.

03:55Here, I just have to say a few words about the instrument that discovered this space anomaly.

04:00The Einstein probe is an X-ray space telescope project, led by the Chinese Academy of Science,

04:07in collaboration with the European Space Agency, and the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial

04:12Physics.

04:13That's a mouthful.

04:14This project is all about studying high-energy space events over time.

04:19Its main goal is to find inactive black holes and figure out how matter falls into them by

04:25spotting X-ray flares produced by these sudden space events.

04:30The Einstein probe also hopes to catch the electromagnetic signals from events that cause gravitational waves,

04:36like when neutron stars merge.

04:39It also keeps an eye on the whole sky to spot all kinds of space explosions and track already

04:45known changing X-ray sources.

04:48After the Einstein probe detected that ultra-bright space flash, the event was also observed by

04:53a few other ground-based and space telescopes, including the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array,

05:00Swift, Gemini, Keck, Dark Energy Camera, Very Large Array, Australia Telescope Compact Array,

05:08and Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer.

05:11That's a bigger mouthful.

05:13Using all this data, astronomers pieced together the event's characteristics, but it didn't

05:18make the case any clearer.

05:20Quite the opposite.

05:21It just deepened the mystery.

05:23This event flared up in soft X-rays for the first 10 seconds, then plateaued at a steady

05:29glow for about 4 days before fading quickly within another day.

05:34This is much longer than typical gamma-ray bursts, which usually lasts from a few milliseconds

05:39to several hours.

05:41But it was still not long enough to fit into other known categories.

05:45The event's brightness in X-rays was also unusual.

05:49It was too bright for some types of phenomenon, but not bright enough for others.

05:54The most puzzling part is that the very large array didn't detect any radio emission from

05:59the source when it was observed 11 days, 158 days, and 258 days after the initial flare.

06:07Normally, when something this bright in X-rays last for this long, it's usually associated

06:13with a luminous radio counterpart.

06:16But in this case, no radio signals were detected, which is very strange and adds to the mystery.

06:23Astronomers didn't give up and considered several other possibilities, like fast blue

06:28optical transients.

06:30Those are a new class of explosions that release huge amounts of energy and blast matter into

06:36space at incredibly high speeds.

06:38These bursts are so powerful that one F-bot can be at least 10 times more powerful than

06:43a regular supernova.

06:46Fast blue optical transients do look like supernova explosions, but they are much faster.

06:52They flare up and fade away much more quickly than regular supernovae.

06:56They are also much hotter, which makes the light seem bluer compared to other supernovae.

07:02Since these explosions happen so quickly, it's tough to figure out what causes them.

07:07In January 2019, astronomers narrowed it down to two causes – a black hole consuming a white

07:14dwarf star, or a rare kind of supernova that leads to the formation of a neutron star or a

07:20black hole.

07:22Another explanation for our mysterious space explosion – and astronomers think it's

07:26the most likely one – is a tidal disruption event.

07:30It happens when a black hole swallows a star, causing a flash of light.

07:35When a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, it doesn't get off easily.

07:41No, the black hole's powerful tidal forces tear the star apart, breaking it into pieces

07:46and pulling it toward the black hole.

07:49Its remains turn into a stream of debris that falls toward the black hole's accretion disk.

07:54However, before the debris settles into the disk, it overshoots the black hole in an elliptical

08:00path, only to be pulled back in.

08:03At one point in this path, the debris collides violently with other parts of the star being

08:08pulled in, and that's when we start to see the first bursts of emissions.

08:14In some rare cases, tidal disruption events create huge jets of material that shoot out

08:20from the black hole's poles.

08:22If these jets happen to point directly at Earth, we can see the signature of the event.

08:27It often looks like an intermediate-mass black hole eating a white dwarf star.

08:33However, there should still be some radio emissions coming from the jet of a tidal disruption event.

08:39The reason none have been detected yet might be that the event was likely observed too early.

08:46Previous studies suggest that it can take hundreds or even thousands of days for the jet material

08:51to slow down enough to start sending out radio signals.

08:55If future observations pick up radio emissions, it could help solve the mystery.

09:00But if there are no signals, it might mean it's a very unusual gamma-ray burst or something

09:06completely new that we haven't seen before.

09:08That's it for today.

09:11So hey, if you've pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with

09:15your friends.

09:16Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

09:19bright side.

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