The Conversation

A collapsing star in a distant galaxy fired out some of the most energetic gamma rays ever seen

Author: Gavin Rowell, Associate Professor in High Energy Astrophyics, University of Adelaide

The HESS telescopes in Namibia are on the alert for high-energy gamma rays.HESS Collaboration / Clementina Medina

The brightest fireworks in the universe are called gamma-ray bursts and are created by the death throes of certain kinds of stars. These intense blasts release as much energy in one second as the Sun will over its whole lifetime, but we...

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