The Most Powerful Explosions in the Universe are Even Stranger Than We Thought

[Judi Lynn]

By Mike Wall, Space.com Senior Writer | January 12, 2019 12:26pm ET

- click for image -

An artist's illustration of a gamma-ray burst, the most luminous type of explosion in the universe.
Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The most powerful explosions in the universe may be even more exotic than scientists had thought.

There's a weird mix of order and chaos in the light blasted out by gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), brief but intense outbursts associated with the formation of black holes, a new study reports.

The new research shows that GRB photons tend to be polarized — that is, most of them oscillate in the same direction. But, surprisingly, this direction changes over time. [Images: Black Holes of the Universe]

"The results show that, as the explosion takes place, something happens which causes the photons to be emitted with a different polarization direction," Merlin Kole, a researcher at the Department of Nuclear and Particle Physics at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, said in a statement.

More:
https://www.space.com/42990-black-hole-gamma-ray-burst-mystery.htmlkjhh,mnn9y