Weekly - Scientists believe the 2022 GRB explosion was caused by antimatter and more
🟢 Weekly Space News - Quick and Easy.
This week’s post ranks green 🟢 on the Engagement Palette.
NASA finds signs of possible life on Mars
Last week, NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars, discovered marks on an arrowhead-shaped rock that resembled leopard spots. The rings around the spots were made up of iron and phosphate, which on Earth is a sign of chemical reactions led by living microbes. That is not all, the rock was found to contain traces of organic matter (carbon-based components), which we all know, is a sign of life. It also contained calcium sulphate which indicates the possible past presence of water, which is essential for life. All 3 features have never been seen together before, and that is what makes the scientists so excited about this discovery. We cannot however jump to conclusions as more analysis needs to be done on this.
Scientists believe the 2022 GRB explosion was caused by antimatter
NASA's Fermi gamma-ray space telescope detected an extremely powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) on October 9, 2022, named GRB 221009A or the "Brightest Of All Time" (BOAT). Previously, GRBs were thought to come from collapsing massive stars. However, the BOAT showed a unique pattern in its light. They had more energy than what would be seen by a star collapse. Scientists now believe that electrons and their opposite twins, positrons, were responsible for this as they annihilate each other and release a lot of energy. This is the first time such antimatter activities have been detected in GRBs.