🌌 NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day
BATSE's Biggest Gamma Ray Burst (Yet) Credit:
Date: 1996-10-01

Explanation:
Something big exploded but astronomers have
no idea what. On September 24th, the Burst and Transient Source Experiment
(BATSE) onboard the orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
recorded the most intense gamma ray burst
in its five year history. During its mission, BATSE
has recorded many gamma ray bursts
- about one per day, but none were this powerful. Since their
discovery over 25 years ago,
the origin and even distance to gamma ray bursts
remains hotly debated. Bursts are surely mysterious phenomena:
they flash into existence suddenly dominating the entire gamma-ray sky,
then typically fade in a few seconds never to be seen again.
It is possible that this intense wave of gamma radiation
caused other satellites to glitch and may even have been the cause
of unusual noise in the Earth's atmosphere. If you know of such
an anomaly, please report it.







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