The NASA Nel Gehrels Swift Observatory has captured an incredible signal from a mysterious world belonging to the primordial universe.
The unidentified object emitting the signal is known as GRB210905A, which appeared when the universe was only about 1 million years old. Because it is so distant, the light from it took a staggering 12.8 billion years to reach Earth, meaning what we are observing is not from the present but rather from a moment of explosion that occurred 12.8 billion years ago.
According to Space, scientists have revisited this ancient event using other powerful ground-based telescopes, including the Very Large Telescope and the La Silla Observatory located in Chile, operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
The red dot in the center of the screen is the gamma signal “transcending” from the primordial universe – (Photo: ESO)
The strange signal, in the form of gamma rays, only appears for a moment in the past. It is a super-strong explosion that quickly fades away.
Gamma radiation originates from certain types of nuclear collisions and the radioactive decay of materials, and gamma-ray bursts in the universe, referred to as GRBs, are rare and shrouded in mystery.
According to research published in Astronomy and Astrophysics, astronomer Andrea Rossi from the National Institute of Astrophysics – Bologna Astrophysics Observatory and Space Science in Italy suggests that the most plausible hypothesis is that it originates from material being pulled in by the immense gravitational force of a black hole.
He does not rule out the possibility that it could be emitted from a magnetar – a type of neutron star that is the bare core of a dead massive star; however, GRB210905A has too much energy to be consistent with a magnetar.
To draw a final conclusion, scientists need to find many more GRBs for comparison and analysis, so large telescopes around the world are still engaged in the effort to “pan for gold.” With this recent discovery, anything that emanates from such a distant and ancient world is a treasure that brings humanity closer to uncovering the secrets of the universe’s primordial era.