For the first time, a single burst of cosmic radio waves has been traced to its point of origin: in this case, a galaxy about 3.6 billion light-years from Earth.

NASA said that GRB 221009A is only the 7th gamma-ray burst we’ve detected that creates these x-ray rings. The echoes came from dust located between 700 and 61,000 light-years away.

19 December 2023 Light from giant cosmic burst provides hint of new physics Dark matter particles may explain why the photons of a gamma-ray burst detected in 2022 had such a high energy.

Nicknamed the BOAT, for the Brightest of All Time, it temporarily blinded Earth’s satellites, NASA said in a press release. The burst was initially detected on Oct. 8th, 2022, by Voyager 1.