Astronomers explain the observations of GRB 200415A with the sequence of events illustrated here. A magnetar is a city-sized ball containing more mass than the Sun that boasts the strongest magnetic fields known. A sudden reconfiguration of this field, possibly caused by a starquake, produced a quick, powerful pulse of X-rays and gamma rays (magenta). The event also ejected a blob of matter that followed this pulse, but moved slightly slower, at about 99% the speed of light. After a few days, they both reached the boundary, called a bow shock, where interstellar piles up. Light from the flare passes through, followed many seconds later by the fast-moving cloud of ejected particles. The cloud interacts with gas at the bow shock, creating shock waves that accelerate particles, which produce the highest-energy gamma rays detected by NASA's Fermi mission.
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Music credit: "Collision Course" from Universal Production Music
Video credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA/GESTAR)
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer
Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park): Lead Science Writer
Chris Smith (USRA): Animator
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Editor
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