First detection of supernova extreme afterglow

telescope

The H.E.S.S. large central telescope with a 614 m虏 mirror area used in the detection of GRB180720B.

A multinational team of researchers including scientists from the 最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide has shown for the first time that certain kinds of supernova explosions can emit gamma rays bursts of extreme energies that can be detected from the Earth鈥檚 surface.

最新糖心Vlog of Adelaide鈥檚 Associate Professor Gavin Rowell is a member of the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) team. They have published their findings in Nature which challenge existing knowledge of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and their origin.

鈥淥ur observation of a gamma-ray burst suggests the accelerated particles creating the gamma-rays still exist or are created a long time after cosmic explosions,鈥 he says.

鈥淎fter over a decade of looking at many other gamma-ray bursts, H.E.S.S. was able to confirm its first detection of gamma rays from a hypernova at energies never before seen.鈥Associate Professor Gavin Rowell

鈥淪upernovae represent the dramatic death throes of massive stars, and they can be some of the most energetic and violent events in the universe.
鈥淭he team used the H.E.S.S. gamma-ray telescopes in Namibia to reveal the gamma-rays, each of which have an energy more than 100 billion times the energy of optical light.鈥

Spy satellites started detecting gamma ray bursts coming from outer space in the 1960s, but it wasn鈥檛 until the 1990s that new satellites provided valuable data to help unravel the mystery of these bursts of gamma rays.

鈥淪ome of these gamma-ray bursts are associated with massive stars ending their lives as 鈥榟ypernovae鈥 which create intense beams or jets of radiation, concentrating energy into narrow directions. If these jets are pointing towards the Earth, then we can see the gamma-ray burst which typically lasts no more than a minute or two,鈥 says Associate Professor Rowell.

A new gamma-ray burst, named GRB 180720B by scientists, was detected in July 2018. It was a very strong gamma-ray burst and lasted for about 50 seconds, which was a relatively long duration indicating the death of a massive star. Its core collapsed to a rapidly rotating black hole. The surrounding gas formed an accretion disk of diffuse material in orbit around the black hole, which then created jets that were visible from Earth despite the immense distances.

鈥淎fter over a decade of looking at many other gamma-ray bursts, H.E.S.S. was able to confirm its first detection of gamma rays from a hypernova at energies never before seen,鈥 says Associate Professor Rowell.

鈥淒ue to its location the H.E.S.S. telescopes were well placed to search some ten hours after the initial event for a very high-energy afterglow from the burst.

鈥淲hile the detection of gamma-ray bursts at these high energies had long been anticipated, the discovery many hours after the initial burst came as a great surprise.
鈥淭his and other aspects of the H.E.S.S. results present new challenges to theoretical models of particle acceleration in gamma-ray bursts and, indeed, to where we believe cosmic-rays come from.鈥

From the lessons learned during the detection of the GRB 180720B gamma-ray emission and their updated observational strategy, the H.E.S.S. scientists are in a position to anticipate future high-energy GRB detections which will give them a deeper understanding of this phenomenon.

Tagged in gamma ray, supernova, hypernova, cosmic