Christmas day 2010 treated the physics community to an event we had never witnessed before. It was a gamma ray burst with characteristics unlike any previously recorded. Gamma ray burst happen in stages. There’s an initial prompt event consisting of high intensity radiation that is thought to coincide with the formation of a black hole. This is followed by an afterglow emission in which the burst cools into different wavelengths of energy. The Christmas burst was different though. At about 30 minutes the prompt event lasted longer than any of the others we have seen. Then the afterglow stage contained wavelengths never before recorded during a gamma ray burst.
Two possible explanations for the differences between this burst and previously recorded ones are currently being discussed in the physics community. The first suggests that about 10000 light years from here a large object crashed into the neutron star at the time of its collapse. The other theory is a binary model in which a neutron star was orbiting another star that was at the beginning of its red giant phase in a galaxy 5.5 billion light years from here. As the expanding gas cloud from the red giant enveloped the neutron star it collapsed into a black hole. In both models the additional materials available to the neutron star as it collapsed are responsible for the difference of this event. The team responsible for theory number two thinks they have detected a faint galaxy at the correct location. They are currently waiting on some Hubble time to try and verify if it is there. If so it will lend weight to their argument but not prove it by any means.
Two possible explanations for the differences between this burst and previously recorded ones are currently being discussed in the physics community. The first suggests that about 10000 light years from here a large object crashed into the neutron star at the time of its collapse. The other theory is a binary model in which a neutron star was orbiting another star that was at the beginning of its red giant phase in a galaxy 5.5 billion light years from here. As the expanding gas cloud from the red giant enveloped the neutron star it collapsed into a black hole. In both models the additional materials available to the neutron star as it collapsed are responsible for the difference of this event. The team responsible for theory number two thinks they have detected a faint galaxy at the correct location. They are currently waiting on some Hubble time to try and verify if it is there. If so it will lend weight to their argument but not prove it by any means.
Save a life. Adopt a greyhound.
![[Image: JUkLw58.gif]](https://i.imgur.com/JUkLw58.gif)
