A gamma-ray burst's engine stayed active for nearly a month, breaking the previous record

Filed by Dr. Kai Vega

Astronomers have observed the longest-lasting central engine activity ever recorded from a gamma-ray burst. The burst occurred at a redshift of 0.8577, and the activity lasted about 27 days in the burst's own rest frame—around 20 days longer than the previous record. The paper, posted to the arXiv preprint server on Sept. 18, explores different mechanisms that could be powering this puzzling burst.