On Oct. 9, 2022, telescopes in space picked up a jet of high energy photons careening through the cosmos toward Earth, evidence of a supernova exploding 1.9 billion light-years away.
Such events are known as gamma ray bursts, and astronomers who have continued studying this one said it was the “brightest of all time.”Now, a team of scientists have discovered that this burst caused a measurable change in the number of ionized particles found in Earth’s upper atmosphere, including ozone molecules, which readily absorb harmful solar radiation.
“The ozone was partially depleted — was destroyed temporarily,” said Pietro Ubertini, an astronomer at the National Institute of Astrophysics in Rome who was involved in discovering the atmospheric event.
The effect was detectable for just a few minutes before the ozone repaired itself, so it was “nothing serious,” Dr. Ubertini said.
But had the supernova occurred closer to us, he said, “it would be a catastrophe.”The discovery, reported Tuesday in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications, demonstrates how even explosions that occur far from our solar system can influence the atmosphere, which can be used as a giant detector for extreme cosmic phenomena.
Persons:
”, Pietro Ubertini, Ubertini
Organizations:
National Institute of Astrophysics, Nature Communications
Locations:
Rome