Reading: Scientists are unable to explain a mystery signal from beyond our galaxy

Scientists are unable to explain a mystery signal from beyond our galaxy

Last updated: 2025/09/18 at 11:26 PM

News Room Published 18 September 2025

Gamma ray bursts (GRB) are some of the most powerful explosions in the universe. Usually this explosion of energy, which is more than the Sun releases in 10 billion years, is produced by stars dying in a spectacular supernova. However, now astronomers say they’ve detected a gamma ray burst unlike anything they have seen before. So what is it? (Picture: Getty)

The signal repeated multiple times over the course of a single day, like the star suffered back to back deaths. The discovery was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, and the source was pinpointed by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). Usually, these explosions last milliseconds to minutes, but this signal — GRB 250702B — lasted about a day (Picture: Getty)

Antonio Martin-Carrillo, an astronomer at University College Dublin, Ireland, and co-author of the study, said: ‘This event is unlike any other seen in 50-years of GRB observations. GRBs are catastrophic events, so they are expected to go off just once because the source that produced them does not survive the dramatic explosion. This event baffled us, not only because it showed repeated powerful activity, but also because it seemed to be periodic, which had never been seen before’ (Picture: Getty)

The Nasa’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope picked up the signal for the mystery GRB and the Einstein Probe had similarly detected activity. But the ESO team used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) to pinpoint the exact location of the explosion. Fellow co-lead author Prof Andrew Levan said: ‘The event seemed to have originated from within our galaxy due to its proximity to the galactic plane. The VLT fundamentally changed that paradigm’ (Picture: Getty)

After using VLT’s HAWK-I camera, they found evidence that the source may actually reside in another galaxy which was later confirmed by the Nasa/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The size and brightness of the host galaxy suggests that it may sit a few billion light-years away, but more data is needed. Dr Martin-Carrillo said: ‘We keep collecting more data. Determining the true distance of this event will be key to measuring its true energy and will help us improve our physical modeling’ (Picture: Getty)

There are a few theories of what the GRB is. The simplest is that this is a massive star imploding under its own weight ‘where some material kept powering the central engine,’ Dr Martin-Carrillo said, but this would produce a GRB that lasts only a few seconds. Another explanation is that it is produced by a tidal disruption event (TDE). However, Dr Martin-Carrillo said: ‘However, unlike more typical TDEs, to explain the properties of this explosion would require an unusual star being destroyed by an even more unusual black hole’ (Picture: Getty)

If it is a black hole, it would be what is known as an intermediate-mass black hole. This is something between the mass of your typical black hole that forms from a star dying and the supermassive black holes which make up entire galaxies. However, an intermediate-mass black hole has never been directly observed. Dr Martin-Carrillo said: ‘We are still not sure what produced this or if we can ever really find out. But, with this research, we have made a huge step forward towards understanding this extremely unusual and exciting object’ (Picture: Getty)

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