Gamma rays produce flashes that are brighter than a billion suns yet last only a few milliseconds and have been simply too fast to catch… until now. The artist's concept above depicts the sequence of events as a black hole devours a neutron star, producing gamma-ray bursts as it does so.
Gamma rays produce flashes that are brighter than a billion suns yet last only a few milliseconds and have been simply too fast to catch… until now. The artist’s concept above depicts the sequence of events as a black hole devours a neutron star, producing gamma-ray bursts as it does so. Using data from the Swift observatory, scientists have gleaned tantalizing evidence of a black hole eating a neutron star-first stretching the neutron star into a crescent, swallowing it, and then gulping up crumbs of the broken star in the minutes and hours that followed.
Related: Image 1, Image 2, Image 3Image Credit: NASA/Dana Berry
