A brief but bright flash of optical radiation has been captured only 30 seconds after the onset of a gamma-ray burst. Produced in the interior of the shocked relativistic jet that powered the burst, the optical flash reveals the jet to be narrow and magnetized.
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References
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This is a summary of: Oganesyan, G. et al. Exceptionally bright optical emission from a rare and distant gamma-ray burst. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01972-4 (2023).
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An intense visible flash from a distant gamma-ray burst. Nat Astron 7, 769–770 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01985-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-01985-z
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