Gamma-Ray Afterglow Hints at a Hidden Stellar Monster

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] This is Space News Today Series 29, Episode 132, broadcast on the 4th of November 2026. Coming up on Space Time, a cosmic blast dazzling glow hints at a monster in hiding, what looks like coronal mass ejections discovered erupting from a black hole, and Virgin Galactic unveils its new Delta-class space plane. All that and more coming up on Space

[00:00:25] [SPEAKER_03] Time. Welcome to Space Time with Stuart Gary. Astronomers say a seemingly ordinary flash of

[00:00:48] [SPEAKER_01] gamma rays followed by an unusually bright afterglow are now pointing to what could be a powerful stellar monster lurking out of sight. The gamma ray burst observations reported in the astrophysical journal letters resulted in one of the brightest afterglows recorded in the past 20 years. The event, catalogued as GIB 260310A, was detected by NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope back on

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01] March 10th. Its initial gamma ray flash lasted about 53 seconds and caught astronomers' attention for releasing apparently very little energy. But the afterglow that followed told a very different story. Invisible light, this afterglow brightened gradually over several hours, becoming brighter than the galaxy that hosted the blast before eventually fading away. Then in the weeks after the initial flash, its X-ray glow brightened again and remained visible for months.

[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_01] Gamma ray bursts are the most powerful explosions in the universe since the Big Bang, releasing more energy in a few seconds than what our Sun will emit during its entire 12 billion year lifespan. Short period gamma ray bursts, those under two seconds, are caused by the violent collision and merger of compact binary objects such as neutron stars or black holes. These produce killer nerve and can forge heavy elements like gold and platinum. Long period gamma ray bursts, those lasting more

[00:02:09] [SPEAKER_01] than two seconds, are caused by the core collapse supernerve explosions of massive fast-spending stars more than 30 times the mass of our Sun that are collapsing to form black holes. All gamma ray bursts produce brief flashes of gamma rays and blast out jets of matter at close to the speed of light. As these jets plough through the surrounding interstellar gases, they produce an afterglow that telescopes can follow in X-rays, visible light and even radio waves. One of the study's authors, Roberto Ricci from

[00:02:38] [SPEAKER_01] the University of Rome, says while his team see hundreds of gamma ray bursts every year, our balls like this one are the most informative. Ricci and colleagues could explain individual features in the burst but fitting them all together into the same picture proved to be much harder. The authors say the evidence points to perspective. The Earth was simply outside the most intensely beamed light from the explosion. See, astronomers most easily detect these explosions when the jets are pointing directly towards Earth.

[00:03:05] [SPEAKER_01] Just like a flashlight, the jet appears brightest when seen head-on. Most models are calibrated using events seen from the same perspective. But this burst gave astronomers a chance to look beyond the glare. GRB 260310A showed the telltale signatures of a jet pointing away from the Earth. Its gamma ray output was unremarkable, but its observed X-ray and optical afterglows ranked among the brightest 1% and its radio

[00:03:31] [SPEAKER_01] brightness among the top 5%. As the jet slowed down, its light became visible over a wider range of angles, allowing astronomers to probe the jets shape from its outer edges towards its inner core. Three weeks after the initial burst, the X-ray afterglow brightened again and remained bright for over a week before fading again. The authors think this was because the burst was powered by a jet with a narrow energetic core surrounded by a broader, slower outflow. In this picture,

[00:04:01] [SPEAKER_01] the early afterglow radiation comes from the broader wings of the jet, while the light from its narrow core becomes visible later, causing the brightening of the X-ray afterglow. This is Space Time. Still to come, a stellar-like coronial mass ejection seen erupting from a black hole for the first time. And Virgin Galactic unveils its new Delta-class space plane. All that and more still to come, on Space Time.

[00:04:36] [SPEAKER_01] Astronomers have for the first time discovered an event similar to a coronal mass ejection which normally blasts out of stars, but this one was blasting out of a black hole. The observations reported in the Astrophysical Journal letters represent the first ever evidence of a solar storm-like magnetic eruption event from the space surrounding a supermassive black hole. The phenomenon was discovered in the galaxy NGC 3783, a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Centaurus, located some 135

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_01] million light-years away. Coronal mass ejections are powerful explosions linked to stellar flares, blasting out millions to billions of tons of charged particles, X-ray radiation and magnetic field off the surface of stars, including our Sun. These coronal mass ejections originate from the conversion of magnetic energy into kinetic energy through a process called magnetic reconnection. The study's lead author,

[00:05:30] [SPEAKER_01] Gal Vardy from Technicon, the Israel Institute of Technology, says it's the first time magnetic reconnection eruptions have been observed originating from the corona of a black hole. Vardy and colleagues monitored X-ray emissions from near the black hole using NASA's CRISM space telescope. The phenomenon they identified near the black hole is known as the Newpert effect. It was first discovered on the Sun back in 1968 but had never previously been observed around black holes. The new findings mean the same physical

[00:05:59] [SPEAKER_01] processes underlying solar storms on the Sun could also occur in the environments surrounding supermassive black holes. This is space-time. Still to come, Virgin Galactic unveils its new Delta-class space plane. Later in the science report, a new study warns exposure to bushfire smoke while pregnant could lead to your

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_01] kids being later diagnosed with autism. All that and more still to come on Space Time. Virgin Galactic has formally unveiled the first of its new next-generation Delta-class space planes at its New Mexico spaceport.

[00:06:49] [SPEAKER_01] Named Pyron, ancient Greek for boundless, the new suborbital space plane is designed to achieve what its spaceship to predecessors, Unity and Enterprise couldn't. That is, reach the 100-kilometre high Kármán line, the official start of space. Enterprise crashed during flight tests back in October 2014 due to pilot error, and Unity reached a maximum altitude of 89.23 kilometres during one of its 33 testing

[00:07:15] [SPEAKER_01] commercial flights. That official boundary of space at 100 kilometres remained elusive. The new Delta-class also replaces the Spaceship 3 vehicles Imagine and Inspire, which were originally designed for commercial orbital flights but were cancelled before either was completed. The new rocket planes feature increased passenger capacity, carrying six instead of four. They also have the ability to fly at high cadence, with up to eight flights per month, that's two per week,

[00:07:42] [SPEAKER_01] compared to Unity's one flight per month. But space tourism tickets on the new planes will be more expensive, at around US$850,000 per seat. Of course, that is return. A Proton was flown to New Mexico, mounted between the twin fuselage of its Eve mothership for its journey from the manufacturing facility at Mesa, Arizona. Engineers will now undertake finishing work on the vehicle's avionic software ahead of test flights slated for next year. If all goes well, space tourists could be flying

[00:08:12] [SPEAKER_01] aboard the new space plane by the middle of 2027. Work on a second Delta-class vehicle is now underway. This promotional report from Virgin Galactic.

[00:08:22] [SPEAKER_02] At Virgin Galactic, we've made incredible strides forward. Our spaceship Unity proved itself, completing six space flights in six months, creating 19 new astronauts. A launch rate never seen before in their history of human space flight. And we're just getting started. Introducing the design of Virgin Galactic's Delta-class spaceship.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_02] Delta is a next generation design, with each vehicle creating thousands of astronauts in its life cycle, broadening the opportunity of space travel from the few to the many. Delta-class spaceships will upgrade our number of passengers from four to six, and will harness the supersonic might of the world's most powerful hybrid rocket system. Delta-class spaceships are designed in sub-components and built using state-of-the-art

[00:09:18] [SPEAKER_02] aerospace development practices, enabling a far more efficient and rapid build. A new design brings new efficiency to get us back in the air faster between flights. Spaceship Unity is limited to fly once a month, whereas Delta spaceships will be able to fly twice a week, over eight times more efficient. Manufacturing spaceships in this way allows multiple vehicles to be made. With each spaceport around

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_02] the world having up to five ships in their fleet, Virgin Galactic's Delta-class vehicle isn't just a

[00:09:49] [SPEAKER_01] spaceship, it's the start of a space line. This is Space News Today. And time now to take another brief look at

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_01] some of the other stories making news in science this week with a science report. Scientists have found a link between being exposed to bushfire-related fire and particulate matter and kids resulting from their pregnancy later being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. The research, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, looked into data from some 900,000 mother-child pairs, finding higher exposure to the pollution was linked to an increased risk of kids with autism.

[00:10:42] [SPEAKER_01] However, interestingly, the same link wasn't found for kids with ADHD, which is often associated with autism. The authors found the link was strongest when the moms were exposed during their mid to late pregnancy. New research warns that Antarctic Intermediate Water, a vast layer of fresh water spanning much of the Southern Hemisphere's ocean, has now rapidly reversed its long-term trends in salinity

[00:11:06] [SPEAKER_01] and density. Antarctic Intermediate Water helps store carbon, supply oxygen and drive global ocean currents. The new findings, reported in the journal Nature Climate Change, show that scientists may have underestimated the extent of deep ocean warming and rising sea levels. Paleontologists may have discovered the remains of a new species of herbivorous dinosaur. Inferno Gallus, meaning Hell Chicken, was unearthed at the famous Hell Creek formation, which stretches

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_01] through Montana, North and South Dakota and Wyoming. The findings, reported in the journal Nature Communications, include a nearly complete articulated skull and partial skeleton. Inferno Gallus was a small oviraptosaur, belonging to a group of small toothless feathered dinosaurs about the size of a turkey and would have weighed around 12 kilograms. It featured specialised chewing muscles, only seen today in fruit-eating parrots, which evolved for mashing soft food, making it the first known dinosaur

[00:12:05] [SPEAKER_01] that specifically ate fruit. A new study has shown that bans on smartphones implemented across schools in Iceland does not appear to have any measurable effect on teenagers' mental health. The findings, reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on surveys involving 24,000 13-15 year olds. The authors surveyed the students in 2016, 2018 and 2023, involving 22 of the 70

[00:12:32] [SPEAKER_01] schools implementing the smartphone ban during that time. They found no evidence that removing phones from schools was linked to any changes in depression or anxiety symptoms, hostility or well-being among the students. Apple's new $3,000 plus iPhone Duo is under scrutiny, with frustrated customers reporting cracks, lines and display failures developing around the screen's hinged area within hours of use. With the details,

[00:13:00] [SPEAKER_01] we're joined by technology editor Alex Zaharov-Roy from TechAdvice.Life.

[00:13:04] [SPEAKER_00] Although Samsung has been doing it for eight years, Apple chose a fundamentally different path with its hinge. It's got over 100 parts and there's little springs and all sorts of little things in there so that you can place the phone open at any angle. With Samsung Duo Fold, you can open it up, but if you open it up and it's too far leading towards the back, it'll just snap down and become a flat device. Whereas with Apple, you can put it in any orientation that you want and it will stay there. Now, apparently, the rumors are that the yield,

[00:13:31] [SPEAKER_00] the rate of successful manufacture for these hinges was only about 60%. So, 60 in every 10 or 60 in every 100 were good and then there was a 40% failure rate. Over 100 parts, this is a fiddly precision device. And if something isn't quite right and one of those little bits gets out of alignment, it'll pop up and it will puncture the screen and crack it, which is reportedly what happened. That is not cool. Well, look, it's not cool, but when Samsung launched their first units eight years ago,

[00:14:00] [SPEAKER_00] there were cracking screens then too. It's also the inconvenience, isn't it? Well, obviously. Obviously, you have to, you know...

[00:14:05] [SPEAKER_01] You've got to drop twice, all that sort of stuff.

[00:14:07] [SPEAKER_00] There's no question that is an issue. You are covered by the warranty and it's well known in tech that if something's going to fail, you'll probably fail in the first week. Now, in this case, some of these failed within hours. No doubt, Apple is also working on version two of this hinge for the iPhone Duo 2 that presumably will come next year. And it's another warning, never buy version one of anything. Get version two. Preferably get version three.

[00:14:28] [SPEAKER_01] Next year's a big year for Apple because it's 20 years since the iPhone first came on the market. Well, that's right. That's going to be a huge phone, whatever it is. That's got to be a celebration model.

[00:14:36] [SPEAKER_00] Well, supposedly, that's the phone that's got no dynamic island, no gaps in the screen. It's an all screen display. It's supposed to have screens that go over the edges. I don't know how that's going to work. Samsung tried that, didn't go so well. But yeah, next year's iPhone will be amazing.

[00:14:48] [SPEAKER_01] Of course, like buying a set of kitchen knives at three o'clock in the morning. But wait, there's more from Apple.

[00:14:53] [SPEAKER_00] Yes, this last week has seen three big Apple developments. The first one is a new iPad mini, 8.5 inch screen, OLED screen. So it's beautiful. Obviously has the latest chips inside. Think of it as being like an unfolded duo. The other thing that I've launched is a new MacBook Pro M6 and an iMac M6. And these have all the AI smarts and they can do the AI things that you would expect them to do on device, but you obviously still need to have cloud AI to do really incredible stuff.

[00:15:20] [SPEAKER_00] And then finally, the big launch, we now have a MacBook Pro with a touch screen. So this is offering at least 24 hours of battery life. You can zoom, pinch in, you can swipe, you can use the gestures they're using on the trackpad, but you cannot fold the screen back over to turn it into a tablet, at least not yet. I mean, we've seen those with Windows devices since. I had an HP like that. Yeah. Now look, the problem is a lot of people did not use them in tablet mode and they haven't really taken off. It's like the pen on Samsung Fold devices. The

[00:15:48] [SPEAKER_00] reason why they got rid of the pen is because not enough people used it.

[00:15:50] [SPEAKER_01] That's Alex Zaharov-Roy of Royd from TechAdvice.Life. And this is Space Time. And that's the show for now. Space News Today is available every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday through

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[00:17:00] [SPEAKER_03] This has been another quality podcast production from Bytes.com.