We know that regular supernovas pose no existential threat to life on Earth in the near-term. But there are other varieties ...

Scientists know that supernova explosions forge heavy elements ... exciting because some had hypothesized that a luminous gamma-ray burst like the B.O.A.T. could make a lot of heavy elements ...

But for a supernova to produce the strongest type of gamma-ray burst, the star must be some 30 to 40 times the size of the sun. This new powerful detection, so rare that we'll likely only observe ...

"The gamma-ray burst traveled through intergalactic space at the speed of light for eleven billion years, during which time the Sun and the planets were born." — Timothy Ferris, in the film ...

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An artist’s concept of the famous Wolf-Rayet 104 “pinwheel star,” previously nicknamed the “Death Star.” New research ...

A new study has shed light on the orbital alignment of the well-known Wolf-Rayet 104 (WR 104) system, long considered a potential threat due to its speculated gamma-ray burst (GRB) risk. Observations ...

Decades of W.M. Keck Observatory research on the famed Wolf-Rayet 104 “pinwheel star” system has taken a new turn, revealing more mystery but reducing concerns about its potential as the “Death Star.” ...

26 issue of the journal Nature. In the past four years, the team of astronomers working at the Smithsonian's Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory in Arizona has observed high-energy gamma-ray bursts ...

The supernova’s glow will endure for months ... This could lead to ecosystem collapse and a potential mass extinction event. Gamma-ray bursts, caused by neutron star mergers, are even more ...