ESA’s XMM-Newton space telescope allowed to study a remarkable gamma-ray burst whose source was labeled as GRB130925A, in a galaxy about 5.6 billion light years from Earth. This gamma-ray burst was originated by a blue supergiant star, a very massive star that is rare today but was probably very common in the early universe.
The gamma-ray burst GRB130925A occurred on September 25, 2013 and was detected by NASA’s Swift space telescope, which has the specific purpose of studying these phenomena. Its duration was approximately 20,000 seconds (almost 6 hours), incredibly long if we think that normally a gamma-ray burst lasts less than a minute.
Due to its length, it was possible to study the gamma-ray burst GRB130925A with other telescopes such as XMM-Newton and the other on the ground. An analysis of the star that caused this extraordinary phenomenon showed that it contained very few elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. In the new generations stars there are usually some “ashes” coming from the remains of ancient stars, instead this one is also from the chemical point of view similar to the stars in the early universe.
Probably the star that caused the gamma-ray burst GRB130925A was born from a cloud of gas remained unchanged for billions of years. At some point, for some reason its equilibrium was broken leading to its collapse and the formation of this and other stars. This allowed astronomers to study a phenomenon of a type that was common more than 10 billion years ago.
Luigi Piro of the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology in Rome, a division of Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF), the lead author of the study about GRB130925A published in the journal “The Astrophysical Journal Letters” stated that a number of theoretical studies have been developed that describe how a gamma-ray burst produced by a primordial star should appear tu us and the studio on a very similar star confirms those predictions.
The X-ray-sensitive instruments of the XMM-Newton space-based observatory allowed to observe in the course of months the later stages of the explosion that generated the gamma-ray burst. Combining these observations with those of Swift but also with those to the radio waves of CSIRO’s Australia Telescope Compact Array allowed to have a complete view of the event.
The first-generation stars formed the first elements heavier than helium influencing subsequent generations of stars and the composition of planets. Understanding their formation and their life cycle is one of the challenges in today’s astrophysics and would help us to understand the composition of the universe today.
[ad name=”eBayUSUKAstronomy”]
