Gamma Ray Bursts

     So, in class we sort of ended on the subject of the death of stars. I was particularly interested in the outcome of the most massive stars. Particularly the creation of black holes. When I began researching them I noticed something very interesting that they produce in the process of their formation, gamma ray bursts.  A gamma ray burst is a jet of high energy photons that are expelled by a star during its collapse. These bursts are relatively short but they are immensely luminous. These things are said to be able to light up the whole universe. They are also quite frequent, earth orbiting satellites pick up these bursts on average about one per day.

     These bursts occur during the supernova explosion death of a star.  The rays burst out at opposite angles from the supernova explosion. The time frame of the bursts  can last anywhere from milliseconds to a few minutes, however they are generally on the scale of a a couple of seconds. After this initial burst the former star continues to emit radiation in lower energy wavelengths, known was the afterglow.  These are particularly interesting because of the amount of energy they produce, in just the few seconds that they are active will emit as much energy as our sun in its entire lifetime. Another interesting note about gamma ray bursts is that they are thought not to only be the by-product of super nova but also things such as the merging binary stars in a system, or a magnetar(special type of neutron star).

The video above is a clip from the discovery channel showing the death of a star and the production of gamma ray bursts.