A bright flash of gamma rays from the constellation Boötes that lasted nearly one minute came from a kilonova, as we described in a new paper. This finding challenges what astronomers know about some ...

When faraway stars explode, they send out flashes of energy called gamma-ray bursts that are bright enough that telescopes back on Earth can detect them. Studying these pulses, which can also come ...

It's a celestial event that has astronomers both excited and puzzled. Dan Smith has the story of how a gamma-ray burst across ...

Even as detailed images of distant galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope show us more of the greater universe, scientists still disagree about how life began here on Earth. One hypothesis is ...

Scientists now believe that a burst of life known as a gamma ray may have helped play a vital role in the origins of life on Earth. Further, the finding may actually provide some clues as to how the ...

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A tremendous cosmic explosion 2.4 billion light years away temporarily changed the electric field in Earth’s ionosphere (the electrically-charged upper layer of our atmosphere that helps shield life ...

An artist's rendering of gamma-ray glows observed during the research, with gamma rays colored purple for emphasis NASA / ALOFT mission Two hundred and seventy-two years after that June afternoon when ...