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MilestoneMar 20, 2026

Astronomers missed a space explosion as powerful as a billion suns — until they spotted its echo

Astronomers missed a space explosion as powerful as a billion suns — until they spotted its echo
Image source: Space.com
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"This is the most convincing 'orphan afterglow' candidate to date and only the second candidate to be identified.

A cosmic explosion with an energy level equivalent to the output of a billion of suns went unnoticed by astronomers — until they caught the "echo" of this so-called gamma-ray burst, that is.

Considering all of our advances in astronomy and the fact that we have space telescopes with the ability to spot objects that existed up to 13.3 billion years ago, it may seem unlikely that some of the most powerful explosions in the cosmos since the Big Bang can escape our notice. But often, they do. And this includes gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are launched when massive stars go supernova and birth black holes.

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