'Monster' gamma ray burst in space sets record for death of star

Explosion 3.7bn light years away witnessed through orbiting telescopes in April was far stronger than previous ones

The Guardian, Associated Press, 22 November 2013

Image provided by Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre shows an artist's
rendering of how a gamma ray burst occurs. Photograph: AP

Astronomers call it the monster. It was the biggest and brightest cosmic explosion ever witnessed. Had it been closer, Earth would have been toast.

Because the blast was 3.7bn light years away, mankind was spared. But orbiting telescopes got the fireworks show of a lifetime in April.

The only bigger display astronomers know of was the big bang that created the universe, and no one was around to see that.

The blast was a gamma ray burst, an explosion that happens when a massive star dies, collapses into a brand-new black hole, creates a supernova and ejects energetic radiation that is as bright as can be as it travels across the universe at the speed of light.

Nasa telescopes in orbit have been seeing these types of bursts for more than 20 years, spotting one every couple of days. But this one was special. It set records, according to four studies published on Thursday in the journal Science.

It flooded Nasa instruments with five times the energy of its nearest competitor, a blast in 1999, said University of Alabama at Huntsville astrophysicist Rob Preece, author of one of the studies.

It started with a star that has 20 to 30 times the mass of our sun, but is only a couple of times bigger in width, so it is incredibly dense.

In general, gamma ray bursts are "the most titanic explosions in the universe" and this one was so big some of the telescope instruments hit their peak, Preece said. It was far stronger and lasted longer than previous ones.

"I call it the monster," Preece said. And he wasn't alone. One of the other studies, not written by Preece, used the word "monster" in its title, unusual language for a scientific report.

One of the main reasons this was so bright was that relative to the thousands of other gamma ray bursts astronomers have seen, the monster was pretty close, even at 3.7bn light years. A light year is almost 6 trillion miles.

Most of the bursts Nasa telescopes have seen have been twice as distant as this one. Other explosions could be this big, but are so much farther away they don't seem so bright when they get to Earth, the studies' authors say.

Astronomers say it is incredibly unlikely that a gamma ray burst – especially a big one like this – could go off in our galaxy, near us. Harvard's Avi Loeb, who wasn't part of the studies, put the odds at at least 1 in 10 million.

Also, a burst has to be pointing at you to be seen and to be dangerous. It's concentrated like a focused searchlight or death beam. Planets caught in one would lose their atmospheres instantly and would be left a burnt cinder, astronomers say.

"Either it's pointed at us or it's not," Preece said. "If it's not, yay! Civilisation survives and we see maybe a supernova. If it were pointed at us, then it matters very much how far away it is in our galaxy. If it's in our local arm, well, we had a good run."

We don't see gamma ray bursts on the surface of Earth because the atmosphere obscures them and because their light is the type we cannot see with our eyes, but Nasa has satellites that look for them.

For scientists who look for gamma ray bursts, this was an extraordinary moment.

"These are really neat explosions," said Peter Michelson, a Stanford physicist who is the chief scientist for one of the instruments on a Nasa gamma ray burst-spotting telescope. "If you like fireworks, you can't beat these. Other than the big bang itself, these are the biggest there are."

The burst "is part of the cycle of birth and life and death in the universe", Michelson said. "You and I are made of the stuff that came from a supernova."

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Energy Update: Intensifying the Shift to Crystalline - 19 Nov 2010 (a message from Meredith Murphy)

I then went to channel and gather more understanding. I asked: What is this structure of enormous gamma ray emitting lobes, that the NASA's Fermi Telescope Finds reveals are in our Galaxy? What is the relevance or meaning of this for me and others exploring the expansion of consciousness? Here is what I received from Archangel Michael and Naeshira:

"Enormous waves of high frequency light enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Interacting with lower vibrating waves to form higher frequency gamma rays. Gamma rays are typically thought of as destructive to living cells; however gamma rays with their high frequency/short wavelength are unusually compatible with crystal, (as opposed to carbon structures). Thus, they are highly effective at bringing high-frequency energies into your experience in a new way.

Radiation from gamma rays in your atmosphere is increasing in a parallel movement as your cells becoming increasingly converted from carbon to crystalline in structure. This allows for vast quantities of high-frequency energy to permeate and elevate the overall collective energy field of Earth plane." (Read whole article)

THE RELATIONSHIP TO GAIA - April 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

" .. Things You Don't Expect – Gamma Energy

There is another thing that is related that is yet to be understood by science. There are other sets of instructions to Gaia, which come from a place you don't expect. There's a lot of energy hitting the earth, a tremendous amount in the form of gamma energy. Science wonders where it's coming from, but it remains elusive. They realize that it's cosmic and coming from space. The truth is that it's coming from the center of the galaxy, but it appears to be coming from everywhere. That's because the main attribute of this kind of energy is that it is not 3D. Therefore, it has quantum [multidimensional] attributes that do not carry a "location" or place of origin with it. This is difficult to explain, but things in a true quantum state are everywhere, entangled in a universal soup of being "one" with everything. Therefore, you can't say "it comes from there." There is precedent in science for this, so it is not all that strange to a physicist reading this..... " Read more ..... 

"The Interdimensional Universe" – Nov 15, 2003 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)

“ .... Let me give you another hint about the mechanics of your Universe. We've talked about gamma-ray activity for almost a decade. We told you to "look for intense gamma-ray activity." We told you that when you see it, you'll know that there's creation going on - something special happening. Now we identify this as dimensional shift. It's always accompanied by powerful gamma rays, specifically of extreme high intensity. This is an attribute of dimensional shift, and also tells you that something is happening. You see this at the edge of your galaxy, and you know that something is changing there. It's a "mini-big bang," if you want to use your own terms. It's part of a constantly changing Universe, one that's moving in a push/pull fashion. ....”

Archangel Michael: You are Crystalline and Getting Younger – April 15, 2013 (An Hour with an Angel, with Archangel Michael)

"... SB: All right. Well, thank you, Lord. That has as much to do with a discussion of consciousness as it does with morality. So I do appreciate that.

Turning to our main subject today, can you help us understand the many changes happening to the human body? Are we crystalline at base yet, or still carbon? What can we expect in regard to our DNA strands coming back on line, and a larger number of chakras becoming operational?

AAM: Now, what I say to you — and I give this proviso because each of you is unique, so I speak in generalities of the collective — but you are understanding that there is a bandwidth here.

So when I speak generally, I am not speaking about those who are fully, completely, blissfully anchored in the higher realms, and I am not really speaking about those who are tenaciously clinging to the old 3rd.

But, by and large, your form is primarily crystalline.

There are still some, hmm, what we would call atoms, of carbon. If you think of your bodies as the many layers that you have, but we are talking about a physical body — and this is important for you to understand — think of it this way: that the crystalline overlay, the replacement, the re-gridding, the structure of who you are, is already there.

Now, if you think of it as a construct or even a thermometer, some of you are still at the base of your spine; some of you are at your cervical area; some of you are still very low in your root. But by and large the crystalline form is there and in place, with residual carbon.

The DNA has already been reactivated, and it is coming again on line, not as one switch, but bit by bit by bit. And you are assisting as well with that. And there are qualities that you are bringing to the forefront with your 13 strands of DNA.

Similarly, your chakras are being activated and opened. It is still important to not forget or not ignore the daily practices that have been in place to assist these transitions for thousands and thousands of years. …”