A mysterious X-ray flash

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory detected a mysterious flash of X-rays that scientists have never seen before. The source is located in a sky region known as Chandra Deep Field-South (CDF-S) and when erupted it became 1,000 brighter in a few hours producing a thousand times more energy than all the stars in its host galaxy.

Gamma Ray Bursts and Black Holes

On February 2 NASA’s satellite, Swift, was hit by cosmic gamma rays. This triggered an alert and seconds later University of WA’s Zadko Telescope swung into robotic action to take images and record the entire evolution of the event. The event appeared as a rapid brightening visible in the sky for a brief period of time. Its brightness was equivalent to millions of stars shining together from the same location. What was actually detected is known as a Gamma Ray Burst.