Topic
The universe's brightest explosions: brief high-energy flashes from distant galaxies caused by massive star collapses or compact-object mergers.
Astronomers attribute EP250704a, a half-second gamma-ray burst followed by 10 minutes of X-rays, to two neutron stars colliding. The event gives them a test case for the hundreds of X-ray flashes Einstein Probe has logged since its 2024 launch, some of them still unexplained.
Reality
Einstein Probe recorded nearly ten minutes of soft X-rays after a short gamma-ray burst whose flash lasted under half a second. By the team's estimate the tail was too soft for gamma-ray instruments to register, so earlier missions would have logged only the flash.
Reality
Astronomers led by Benjamin Gompertz found GRB 220706A's central engine still flaring 27 rest-frame days after the burst, about 20 days past the old record. In their preprint, black hole accretion and magnetar models both have to be stretched to explain an engine that ran that long.
Reality
Einstein Probe saw a likely neutron star merger shine in soft X-rays for nearly 10 minutes after a 0.4-second gamma-ray burst. Its team argues gamma-ray detectors alone may have missed this phase in earlier mergers, a case that so far rests on one event.
Reality
Einstein Probe recorded nearly ten minutes of X-ray light from a July 2025 neutron-star merger whose gamma-ray burst lasted about half a second. The team links the long glow to a newborn magnetar, a reading that so far rests on this single event.
Perspective Coverage
3 publishersReality
Galanti and Roncadelli calculate that standard physics expects about 10^-96 photons at 300 TeV, the energy of the Carpet detector's photon-like event. Their fix, combining axion-like particles with a violation of Lorentz invariance, is needed only if that single event was a genuine photon.
Reality
Swift sent gamma-ray burst positions to telescopes on the ground within seconds for nearly 22 years. Solar storms thickened the air at its altitude. Scientific American reports reentry no later than December.
Reality