New Tool New Answers
In 1997 the BeppoSAX satellite was able to give astronomers rapid notice of a GRB, and to approximate the location of its source. With this information, scientists could turn their telescopes to that part of the sky and search for the exact location of the GRB source. At last, the origin of the bursts was identified. Astronomers found the GRB position was centered on galaxy. Spectrographic analysis of the galaxy’s light revealed it was billions of light years away! At least one mystery of GRBs had been solved. But this answer led to another even more compelling question. If GRBs were so far away then the gamma ray light we receive on Earth is a minute fraction of the total energy they pump into space. The enormous distance of GRBs meant they represented outbursts of energy more powerful than anything which had been imagined before.
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