Inside The Universe's Most Powerful Explosions 

A new study provides an inside look at the most powerful explosions in the universe: gamma-ray bursts.

These rare explosions happen when extremely massive stars go supernova. The stars’ strong magnetic fields channel most of the explosion’s energy into two powerful plasma jets, one at each magnetic pole. The jets spray energetic particles for light-years in both directions, at close to light speed.

 Artist’s illustration of a bright gamma-ray burst occurring in a star-forming region. Energy from the explosion is beamed into two narrow, oppositely directed jets."

Credit:  NASA

On Earth, we detect bits of the resulting debris as gamma rays. Researchers also suspect–but haven’t been able to prove conclusively–that GRBs are the source of at least some of the cosmic rays and neutrinos that pepper our planet from space.

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