{ "id": 40215, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/swift-stars/", "page_type": "Gallery", "title": "Swift: Stars", "description": "No description available.", "release_date": "2014-11-13T00:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2018-08-17T00:00:00-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 858864, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/gallery/Swift--Main/Swift-Stars.jpg", "filename": "Swift-Stars.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "", "width": 180, "height": 320, "pixels": 57600 }, "media_groups": [ { "id": 370845, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/swift-stars/#media_group_370845", "widget": "Tile gallery", "title": "Visuals", "caption": "", "description": "", "items": [ { "id": 407042, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 12399, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/12399/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA's Kepler, Swift Missions Harvest ‘Pumpkin’ Stars", "description": "Dive into the Kepler field and learn more about the origins of these rapidly spinning stars.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: \"Electric Cosmos\" from Killer TracksWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available. || Pumpkin_Star_Still.png (1920x1080) [10.8 MB] || Pumpkin_Star_Still_print.jpg (1024x576) [85.7 KB] || Pumpkin_Star_Still_searchweb.png (320x180) [66.5 KB] || Pumpkin_Star_Still_thm.png (80x40) [4.4 KB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star2_ProRes_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [2.0 GB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star_FINAL2_youtube_hq.mov (1920x1080) [1.2 GB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star2_H264_1080.mov (1920x1080) [221.8 MB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star2_1080_Good.m4v (1920x1080) [147.1 MB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star2_1080_Most_Compatible.m4v (960x540) [59.7 MB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star_FINAL2_HD.wmv (1920x1080) [332.6 MB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star2_ProRes_1920x1080_2997.webm (1920x1080) [17.0 MB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star_SRT_Captions.en_US.srt [2.3 KB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star_SRT_Captions.en_US.vtt [2.3 KB] || 12399_Swift_Pumpkin_Star_FINAL2_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [26.8 MB] || ", "release_date": "2016-10-27T12:55:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:48:09.412788-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 419098, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a012300/a012399/Pumpkin_Star_Still.png", "filename": "Pumpkin_Star_Still.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Dive into the Kepler field and learn more about the origins of these rapidly spinning stars.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterMusic: \"Electric Cosmos\" from Killer TracksWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.Complete transcript available.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } }, { "id": 407043, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11725, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11725/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA Missions Take an Unparalleled Look into Superstar Eta Carinae", "description": "Explore Eta Carinae from the inside out with the help of supercomputer simulations and data from NASA satellites and ground-based observatories. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here. || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920.jpg (1920x1080) [804.4 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_print.jpg (1024x576) [52.0 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL.jpg (4928x2772) [874.1 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL.png (4928x2772) [36.6 MB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_web.jpg (320x180) [13.1 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_searchweb.png (320x180) [55.9 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920_thm.png (80x40) [8.0 KB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920.tiff (1920x1080) [11.9 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_appletv.webm (960x540) [30.5 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_ipod_lg.m4v (640x360) [43.2 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary.en_US.vtt [5.2 KB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary.en_US.srt [5.2 KB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_ipod_sm.mp4 (320x240) [22.8 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_appletv_subtitles.m4v (960x540) [103.9 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_appletv.m4v (960x540) [104.0 MB] || G2015-001_Eta_Car_Binary_Final_1280x720.wmv (1280x720) [107.6 MB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_MPEG4_1920X1080_2997.mp4 (1920x1080) [116.9 MB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_ProRes_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [3.5 GB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_H264_Best_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [2.6 GB] || 11725_Eta_Car_Binary2_H264_Good_1920x1080_2997.mov (1920x1080) [506.2 MB] || Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL.tiff (4928x2772) [104.2 MB] || ", "release_date": "2015-01-07T13:15:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:50:09.860356-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 447543, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011700/a011725/Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920.jpg", "filename": "Eta_Car_Density_XY_R10_R100_STILL_1920.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Explore Eta Carinae from the inside out with the help of supercomputer simulations and data from NASA satellites and ground-based observatories. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight CenterWatch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } }, { "id": 407044, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10082, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10082/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Swift Probes Exotic Object: 'Kicked' Black Hole or Mega Star?", "description": "Zoom into Markarian 177 and SDSS1133 and see how they compare with a simulated galaxy collision. When the central black holes in these galaxies combine, a \"kick\" launches the merged black hole on a wide orbit taking it far from the galaxy's core. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/L. Blecha (UMD) || Zoom_Still.jpg (1920x1080) [363.8 KB] || Zoom_Still_print.jpg (1024x576) [137.1 KB] || Zoom_Still_web.png (320x180) [60.9 KB] || SDSS1133_Zoom-Simulation_MPEG4_1920x1080_29.97.mp4 (1920x1080) [31.7 MB] || SDSS1133_Zoom-Simulation_H264_Good_1920x1080_29.97.mov (1920x1080) [68.2 MB] || SDSS1133_Zoom-Simulation_H264_Best_1920x1080_29.97.mov (1920x1080) [278.2 MB] || SDSS1133_Zoom-Simulation_MPEG4_1920x1080_29.97.webmhd.webm (960x540) [13.2 MB] || SDSS1133_Zoom-Simulation_H264_640x360_29.97_iPhone.m4v (640x360) [10.9 MB] || ", "release_date": "2014-11-19T10:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:50:18.806722-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 449713, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010000/a010082/Simulation-vs-KeckII_1080.jpg", "filename": "Simulation-vs-KeckII_1080.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "A simulation of two colliding galaxies (left) shows how their coalescing supermassive black holes can launch the resulting larger black hole (dot, lower left) on a wide orbit. Right: Compare the simulation with this Keck II near-infrared image of Markarian 177 and SDSS1133 (lower left). Credit: Simulation, L. Blecha (UMD); image, W. M. Keck Observatory/M. Koss (ETH Zurich) et al.", "width": 2048, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2211840 } } }, { "id": 407045, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11531, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11531/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Swift Catches Mega Flares from a Mini Star", "description": "On April 23, NASA's Swift satellite detected the strongest, hottest, and longest-lasting sequence of stellar flares ever seen from a nearby red dwarf star. The initial blast from this record-setting series of explosions was as much as 10,000 times more powerful than the largest solar flare ever recorded. At its peak, the flare reached temperatures of 360 million degrees Fahrenheit (200 million Celsius), more than 12 times hotter than the center of the sun. The \"superflare\" came from one of the stars in a close binary system known as DG Canum Venaticorum, or DG CVn for short, located about 60 light-years away. Both stars are dim red dwarfs with masses and sizes about one-third of our sun's. They orbit each other at about three times Earth's average distance from the sun, which is too close for Swift to determine which star erupted. At 5:07 p.m. EDT on April 23, the rising tide of X-rays from DG CVn's superflare triggered Swift's Burst Alert Telescope (BAT). Swift turned to observe the source in greater detail with other instruments and, at the same time, notified astronomers around the globe that a powerful outburst was in progress.For about three minutes after the BAT trigger, the superflare's X-ray brightness was greater than the combined luminosity of both stars at all wavelengths under normal conditions.The largest solar explosions are classified as extraordinary, or X class, solar flares based on their X-ray emission. The biggest flare ever seen from the sun occurred in November 2003 and is rated as X 45. But if the flare on DG CVn were viewed from a planet the same distance as Earth is from the sun and measured the same way, it would have been ranked 10,000 times greater, at about X 100,000. How can a star just a third the size of the sun produce such a giant eruption? The key factor is its rapid spin, a crucial ingredient for amplifying magnetic fields. The flaring star in DG CVn rotates in under a day, about 30 or more times faster than our sun. The sun also rotated much faster in its youth and may well have produced superflares of its own, but, fortunately for us, it no longer appears capable of doing so. || ", "release_date": "2014-09-30T14:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:50:30.351559-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 455893, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011500/a011531/DG_CVn_Flare_FINAL_1080.jpg", "filename": "DG_CVn_Flare_FINAL_1080.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "NASA's Swift mission detected a record-setting series of X-ray flares unleashed by DG CVn, a nearby binary consisting of two red dwarf stars, illustrated here. At its peak, the initial flare was brighter in X-rays than the combined light from both stars at all wavelengths under normal conditions. Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } }, { "id": 407046, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11250, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11250/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "A Trio of Swift Bursts Form A New Class of GRBs", "description": "Three unusually long-lasting stellar explosions discovered by NASA's Swift satellite represent a previously unrecognized class of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Two international teams of astronomers studying these events conclude that they likely arose from the catastrophic death of supergiant stars hundreds of times larger than the sun. GRBs are the most luminous and mysterious explosions in the universe. The blasts emit surges of gamma rays — the most powerful form of light — as well as X-rays, and they produce afterglows that can be observed at optical and radio energies. Swift, Fermi and other spacecraft detect an average of about one GRB each day.Traditionally, astronomers have recognized two GRB types, short and long, based on the duration of the gamma-ray signal. Short bursts last two seconds or less and are thought to represent a merger of compact objects in a binary system, with the most likely suspects being neutron stars and black holes. Long GRBs may last anywhere from several seconds to several minutes, with typical durations falling between 20 and 50 seconds. These events are thought to be associated with the collapse of a star several times the sun's mass and the resulting birth of a new black hole. Both scenarios give rise to powerful jets that propel matter at nearly the speed of light in opposite directions. As they interact with matter in and around the star, the jets produce a spike of high-energy light. A detailed study of GRB 111209A, which erupted on Dec. 9, 2011, and continued to produce high-energy emission for an astonishing seven hours, making it by far the longest-duration GRB ever recorded.Another event, GRB 101225A, exploded on Christmas Day in 2010 and produced high-energy emission for at least two hours. Subsequently nicknamed the \"Christmas burst,\" the event's distance was unknown, which led two teams to arrive at radically different physical interpretations. One group concluded the blast was caused by an asteroid or comet falling onto a neutron star within our own galaxy. Another team determined that the burst was the outcome of a merger event in an exotic binary system located some 3.5 billion light-years away.Using the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, a team led by Andrew Levan at the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, obtained a spectrum of the faint galaxy that hosted the Christmas burst. This enabled the scientists to identify emission lines of oxygen and hydrogen and determine how much these lines were displaced to lower energies compared to their appearance in a laboratory. This difference, known to astronomers as a redshift, places the burst some 7 billion light-years away. Levan and his colleagues also examined 111209A and the more recent burst 121027A, which exploded on Oct. 27, 2012. All show similar X-ray, ultraviolet and optical emission and all arose from the central regions of compact galaxies that were actively forming stars. The astronomers conclude that all three GRBs constitute a hitherto unrecognized group of \"ultra-long\" bursts.To account for the normal class of long GRBs, astronomers envision a star similar to the size sun's size but with many times its mass. The mass must be high enough for the star to undergo an energy crisis, with its core ultimately running out of fuel and collapsing under its own weight to form a black hole. Some of the matter falling onto the nascent black hole becomes redirected into powerful jets that drill through the star, creating the gamma-ray spike, but because this burst is short-lived, the star must be comparatively small. Because ultra-long GRBs persist for periods up to 100 times greater than long GRBs, they require a stellar source of correspondingly greater physical size. Both groups suggest that the likely candidate is a supergiant, a star with about 20 times the sun's mass that still retains its deep hydrogen atmosphere, making it hundreds of times the sun's diameter.Watch this video on YouTube. || ", "release_date": "2013-04-16T13:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:13.842328-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 466652, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011250/Sun-Star_Scale_FINAL_1080_Unlabeled.jpg", "filename": "Sun-Star_Scale_FINAL_1080_Unlabeled.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Blue supergiant star to scale with the Sun. Unlabeled.Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/S. Wiessinger", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } }, { "id": 407047, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11459, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11459/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "NASA's Swift Images SN 2014J in M82", "description": "An exceptionally close stellar explosion discovered on Jan. 21 has become the focus of observatories around and above the globe, including several NASA spacecraft. The blast, designated SN 2014J, occurred in the galaxy M82 and lies only about 12 million light-years away. This makes it the nearest optical supernova in two decades and potentially the closest type Ia supernova to occur during the life of currently operating space missions. As befits its moniker, Swift was the first to take a look. On Jan. 22, just a day after the explosion was discovered, Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) captured the supernova and its host galaxy.A type Ia supernova represents the total destruction of a white dwarf star by one of two possible scenarios. In one, the white dwarf orbits a normal star, pulls a stream of matter from it, and gains mass until it reaches a critical threshold and explodes. In the other, the blast arises when two white dwarfs in a binary system eventually spiral inward and collide. Either way, the explosion produces a superheated shell of plasma that expands outward into space at tens of millions of miles an hour. Short-lived radioactive elements formed during the blast keep the shell hot as it expands. The interplay between the shell's size, transparency and radioactive heating determines when the supernova reaches peak brightness. Astronomers expect SN 2014J to continue brightening into the first week of February, by which time it may be visible in binoculars.M82, also known as the Cigar Galaxy, is located in the constellation Ursa Major and is a popular target for small telescopes. M82 is undergoing a powerful episode of star formation that makes it many times brighter than our own Milky Way galaxy and accounts for its unusual and photogenic appearance. || ", "release_date": "2014-01-24T14:30:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:51:17.058758-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 458906, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011400/a011459/M82_uvot_after_SN_large_web.jpg", "filename": "M82_uvot_after_SN_large_web.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Swift's UVOT captured the new supernova in three exposures taken on Jan. 22, 2014. Mid-ultraviolet light is shown in blue, near-UV light in green, and visible light in red. Thick dust in M82 scatters much of the highest-energy light, which is why the supernova appears yellowish here. The image is 17 arcminutes across, or slightly more than half the apparent diameter of a full moon.Credit: NASA/Swift/P. Brown, TAMU", "width": 320, "height": 195, "pixels": 62400 } } }, { "id": 407048, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11109, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11109/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "X-ray Satellites Monitor the Clashing Winds of a Colossal Binary", "description": "One of the nearest and richest OB associations in our galaxy is Cygnus OB2, which is located about 4,700 light-years away and hosts some 3,000 hot stars, including about 100 in the O class. Weighing in at more than a dozen times the sun's mass and sporting surface temperatures five to ten times hotter, these ginormous blue-white stars blast their surroundings with intense ultraviolet light and powerful outflows called stellar winds. Two of these stars can be found in the intriguing binary system known as Cygnus OB2 #9. In 2011, NASA's Swift satellite, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory and several ground-based facilities took part in a campaign to monitor the system as the giant stars raced toward their closest approach. The observations are giving astronomers a more detailed picture of the stars, their orbits and the interaction of their stellar winds. An O-type star is so luminous that the pressure of its starlight actually drives material from its surface, creating particle outflows with speeds of several million miles an hour. Put two of these humongous stars in the same system and their winds can collide during all or part of the orbit, creating both radio emission and X-rays.In 2008, research showed that Cygnus OB2 #9 emitted radio signals that varied every 2.355 years. In parallel, Yael Naz || ", "release_date": "2012-10-12T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:42.733027-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 471708, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/Colliding_Winds_Still_1.jpg", "filename": "Colliding_Winds_Still_1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Short narrated video.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } }, { "id": 407049, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11019, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11019/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Hubble, Swift Detect First-ever Changes in an Exoplanet Atmosphere", "description": "An international team of astronomers using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has detected significant changes in the atmosphere of a planet located beyond our solar system. The scientists conclude the atmospheric variations occurred in response to a powerful eruption on the planet's host star, an event observed by NASA's Swift satellite.The exoplanet is HD 189733b, a gas giant similar to Jupiter, but about 14 percent larger and more massive. The planet circles its star at a distance of only 3 million miles, or about 30 times closer than Earth's distance from the sun, and completes an orbit every 2.2 days. Its star, named HD 189733A, is about 80 percent the size and mass of our sun.Astronomers classify the planet as a \"hot Jupiter.\" Previous Hubble observations show that the planet's deep atmosphere reaches a temperature of about 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit (1,030 C).HD 189733b periodically passes across, or transits, its parent star, and these events give astronomers an opportunity to probe its atmosphere and environment. In a previous study, a group led by Lecavelier des Etangs used Hubble to show that hydrogen gas was escaping from the planet's upper atmosphere. The finding made HD 189733b only the second-known \"evaporating\" exoplanet at the time.The system is just 63 light-years away, so close that its star can be seen with binoculars near the famous Dumbbell Nebula. This makes HD 189733b an ideal target for studying the processes that drive atmospheric escape.When HD 189733b transits its star, some of the star's light passes through the planet's atmosphere. This interaction imprints information on the composition and motion of the planet's atmosphere into the star's light.In April 2010, the researchers observed a single transit using Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS), but they detected no trace of the planet's atmosphere. Follow-up STIS observations in September 2011 showed a surprising reversal, with striking evidence that a plume of gas was streaming away from the exoplanet.The researchers determined that at least 1,000 tons of gas was leaving the planet's atmosphere every second. The hydrogen atoms were racing away at speeds greater than 300,000 mph. Because X-rays and extreme ultraviolet starlight heat the planet's atmosphere and likely drive its escape, the team also monitored the star with Swift's X-ray Telescope (XRT). On Sept. 7, 2011, just eight hours before Hubble was scheduled to observe the transit, Swift was monitoring the star when it unleashed a powerful flare. It brightened by 3.6 times in X-rays, a spike occurring atop emission levels that already were greater than the sun's. Astronomers estimate that HD 189733b encountered about 3 million times as many X-rays as Earth receives from a solar flare at the threshold of the X class. || ", "release_date": "2012-06-28T09:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:58.908137-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 475033, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011019/Evaporating_Exoplanet_Beauty_Still.jpg", "filename": "Evaporating_Exoplanet_Beauty_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This artist's rendering illustrates the evaporation of HD 189733b's atmosphere in response to a powerful eruption from its host star. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope detected the escaping gases and NASA's Swift satellite caught the stellar flare.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } }, { "id": 407050, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 11026, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11026/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "HD 189733b Exoplanet Animation", "description": "The exoplanet HD 189733b lies so near its star that it completes an orbit every 2.2 days. In late 2011, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found that the planet's upper atmosphere was streaming away at speeds exceeding 300,000 mph. Just before the Hubble observation, NASA's Swift detected the star blasting out a strong X-ray flare, one powerful enough to blow away part of the planet's atmosphere. || ", "release_date": "2012-06-28T09:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-11-02T10:08:01.628282-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 474881, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011000/a011026/Exo_Animation_Still.jpg", "filename": "Exo_Animation_Still.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Artist's interpretation of what the exoplanet, flare, and atmosphere loss might have looked like.", "width": 1920, "height": 1080, "pixels": 2073600 } } }, { "id": 407051, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10808, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10808/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "The Dual Personality of the 'Christmas Burst'", "description": "The Christmas burst, also known as GRB 101225A, was discovered in the constellation Andromeda by Swift's Burst Alert Telescope at 1:38 p.m. EST on Dec. 25, 2010. Two very different scenarios successfully reproduce features of this peculiar cosmic explosion. It was either caused by novel type of supernova located billions of light-years away or an unusual collision much closer to home, within our own galaxy. Common to both scenarios is the presence of a neutron star, the crushed core that forms when a star many times the sun's mass explodes. According to one science team, the burst occurred in an exotic binary system where a neutron star orbited a normal star that had just entered its red giant phase. The outer atmosphere of the giant expanded so much that it engulfed the neutron star, which resulted in both the ejection of the giant's atmosphere and rapid tightening of the neutron star's orbit. Once the two stars became wrapped in a common envelope of gas, the neutron star may have merged with the giant's core after just five orbits, or about 18 months. The end result of the merger was the birth of a black hole and the production of oppositely directed jets of particles moving at nearly the speed of light, which made the gamma rays, followed by a weak supernova. Based on this interpretation, the event took place about 5.5 billion light-years away, and the team has detected what may be a faint galaxy at the right location.Another team supports an alternative model that involves the tidal disruption of a large comet-like object and the ensuing crash of debris onto a neutron star located only about 10,000 light-years away. Gamma-ray emission occurred when debris fell onto the neutron star. Clumps of cometary material likely made a few orbits, with different clumps following different paths before settling into a disk around the neutron star. X-ray variations detected by Swift's X-Ray Telescope that lasted several hours may have resulted from late-arriving clumps that struck the neutron star as the disk formed. The NASA release is here. || ", "release_date": "2011-11-30T13:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:53:26.117792-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 484467, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010808/GRB_SN_Large_Still_1.jpg", "filename": "GRB_SN_Large_Still_1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "These animations illustrate two wildly different explanations for GRB 101225A, better known as the \"Christmas burst.\" First, a solitary neutron star in our own galaxy shreds and accretes an approaching comet-like body. In the second, a neutron star is engulfed by, spirals into and merges with an evolved giant star in a distant galaxy.For complete transcript, click here.", "width": 2560, "height": 1440, "pixels": 3686400 } } }, { "id": 407052, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10561, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10561/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Central Engine Supernova", "description": "In March 2009, NASA's Swift observed the supernova SN 2009bb in the spiral galaxy NGC 3278. The explosion is apparent in visible light, but not at ultraviolet and X-ray energies, and satellites recorded no gamma-ray burst. Nevertheless, particle jets reaching 85 percent the speed of light accompanied the explosion. Astronomers believe these jets are powered by a \"central engine\" — likely a newborn black hole at the star's center, a scenario that also fits most gamma-ray bursts. || ", "release_date": "2010-01-27T13:00:00-05:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:22.993909-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 494316, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010500/a010561/NGC_3278_still_for_video.jpg", "filename": "NGC_3278_still_for_video.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This video labels the galaxy and supernova, and moves through visible, ultraviolet and X-ray images.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } }, { "id": 407053, "type": "details_page", "extra_data": null, "instance": { "id": 10507, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10507/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "Gamma-Rays from High-Mass X-Ray Binaries", "description": "In its first year, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope discovered GeV (billions of electron volts) intensity variations revealing orbital motion in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs). These are systems where a compact companion, such as a neutron star or a black hole, rapidly orbits a hot, young, massive star. The first examples include LSI +61 303, which sports a 26-day orbital period, and LS 5039 (3.9 days). This animation shows such a system. When the compact object lies far from its host star, TeV (trillions of electron volts) gamma-rays (white) are seen by ground-based gamma-ray observatories. But, as the object plunges closer to the star, the TeV emission is quenched and GeV emission turns on. Interactions by accelerated particles from the compact source with gas encircling the star — or in some systems, the star's light itself — is thought to be responsible for this change. || ", "release_date": "2009-10-28T01:45:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:54:30.663323-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 495510, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010500/a010507/NS0001.00002_print.jpg", "filename": "NS0001.00002_print.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Animation showing the star's orbit.", "width": 1024, "height": 576, "pixels": 589824 } } } ], "extra_data": {} } ] }