Gamma Ray Bursts: Most energetic Electromagnetic events

What are GRBs?

 Let's first understand what Gamma Rays are: Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiation waves that carry energy just like visible light. Looking at the Electromagnetic spectrum, the waves with the lowest energy are radio waves, microwaves and, infrared waves. As we go further ahead, we come across visible light waves and then the waves having maximum energy are found. The order is ultra-violet, X-rays, and finally gamma rays. This tells us that gamma rays have the maximum amount of energy in the universe. A gamma-ray photon is more powerful than a million visible ray photons combined. Their high energy makes gamma rays a form of ionizing radiation. Meaning, they can break apart bonds in an atom, making them ions. This could be dangerous for us as gamma rays can damage our DNA sequence. However, the ozone layer protects us from the gamma rays coming from space. 

So what exactly are gamma-ray bursts? Gamma-ray bursts are the strongest and brightest explosions in the universe, thought to be generated during the formation of black holes. There are two types of these bursts: short and long. Long gamma-ray bursts happen when a star explodes and forms a black hole. Short gamma-ray bursts take place when two neutron stars collide in a binary. (You can read my post about neutron stars to learn more about a binary system). A gamma-ray burst is so powerful that we can detect it on the earth even though it has occurred a billion light-years away. A single Gamma-ray burst gives out the energy our sun will give in its entire lifetime in just one go. I mean you can see how unimaginably powerful this is, right? 

Such outbursts produce ripples in the fabric of space-time and are called gravitational waves. They appear unpredictably at arbitrary points in the sky at the rate of about one per day and typically last only a few seconds. Gamma-ray bursts were not discovered until 1977 as the ozone layer doesn't allow the passage of gamma rays in the Earth's atmosphere. When a gamma-ray detecting satellite was sent into space for research, scientists found mysterious, new sources of gamma rays every day. They looked in-depth and learned the wonders of a Gamma-ray burst. We can only detect a gamma-ray burst if it's pointed directly at us.  

Right now, these bursts are not harmful to the Earth as they occur billions of light-years away in other galaxies. If a Gamma-ray burst is to occur a few lightyears away from the Earth, it would probably cook the Earth alive, or at least the side that's exposed to the Gamma-ray burst.  They are deadly to us even if they are thousands of light-years away. Gamma-ray bursts could also be the reason why we don't see life on other planets in the solar system. It is said that due to GRBs, only 10% of all the galaxies are hospitable to life, similar to us.