Something massive just exploding in space ── three times over 24 hours —scientists are stunned—this just isn't supposed to happen.
Quote:Dr Martin-Carrillo said: “This event is unlike any other seen in 50-years of gamma-ray bursts observations. GRBs are catastrophic events so they are expected to go off just once because the source that produced them does not survive the dramatic explosion. This event baffled us not only because it showed repeated powerful activity but also because it seemed to be periodic, which has never seen before.
“If a massive star – about 40 times the mass of the Sun – had died, like in typical GRBs, then it had to be a special type of death where some material kept powering the central engine. Alternatively, the periodicity of the flashes of gamma-ray radiation could be caused by a star being ripped apart by a black hole, a phenomenon known as a tidally disruption event (TDE). However, unlike more typical TDEs, to explain the properties of this explosion would require an unusual star being destroyed by an even more unusual black hole, likely the long-sought ‘intermediate mass black hole’. Either option would be a first, making this event extremely unique.”
In addition, GRBs have been known to last only milliseconds to minutes but this one – referred to as GRB 250702B – lasted about a day, which is “100 to 1000 times longer than most GRBs,” according to fellow co-lead author Prof Andrew Levan, astronomer at Radboud University in The Netherlands.
Using the VLT’s HAWK-I camera, they found evidence that the source may actually reside in another galaxy. This was later confirmed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. “What we found was considerably more exciting – the fact that this object is extragalactic means that it is considerably more powerful,” said Dr Martin-Carrillo. The size and brightness of the host galaxy suggest it may be located a few billion light-years away, but more data are needed to refine this distance.
https://www.ucd.ie/research/news/2025/as...31,en.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
