Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 190114C: A Milestone in High-Energy Astrophysics

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powerful explosions in distant galaxies, emitting energy in gamma rays, which are much more energetic than visible light. In January 2019, a particularly bright and long GRB, named GRB 190114C, was detected by NASA’s Swift and Fermi telescopes, along with the MAGIC telescopes. This burst emitted light with the highest energy ever observed, reaching 1 Tera-electron volt (TeV), a trillion times more energetic than visible light.

Scientists have long sought to observe such high-energy emissions from GRBs, making this discovery a significant achievement in high-energy astrophysics. Previous studies indicate that to reach this energy level, material must be ejected from a collapsing star at nearly the speed of light, creating a shock that results in the gamma-ray burst.

For the first time, extremely energetic gamma rays were observed from GRB 190114C. Ground and space observatories, including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, were used to study the burst’s environment. Andrew Levan from Radboud University noted that the burst was located in a dense environment within a bright galaxy 5 billion light-years away, which may explain its exceptional power.

Astronomers utilized the Hubble Space Telescope, the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array to examine the host galaxy. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 helped determine if the host system’s environmental properties contributed to the high-energy photon production. The GRB occurred in the nuclear region of a massive galaxy, a unique location that may have been crucial for generating the observed high-energy photons.

Antonio de Ugarte Postigo from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia emphasized that this observation advances our understanding of GRBs, their surroundings, and the behavior of matter moving at nearly the speed of light.