Flash shooting

Short, but incredibly bright flash of gamma -ray burst has given scientists a rare opportunity to study a pair of distant galaxies.

Today, the observation of these huge, but short bursts begin orbiting telescopes that observe the first signs of the appearance of bursts of gamma rays and determine their position in space. This data is quickly transferred to a large ground-based observatories, which record the ... It so happened at this time: burst GRB 090323 was observed cosmic gamma-ray telescope Fermi. They were soon joined by an X-ray satellite observations of Swift, and behind him - and ground-based telescopes VLT. It was recorded as a burst of light thrown penetrated the entire galaxy in which it occurred, and then the other, located in the neighborhood. Both of them are about 12 billion light-years from Earth - in such ancient galaxies observed gamma -ray bursts are communicated infrequently. Unexpected ... It is believed that the young universe consisted almost entirely of hydrogen with small amounts of helium. All elements heavier than they were a product of thermonuclear reactions in stars - and, therefore, appeared later than the object, the higher the content of these elements, it ... This figure is even used to determine the age of distant galaxies and stars, and no one expected that such old galaxies can have such an impressive amount of ... The authors findings suggest that the observed galaxies form new stars at high speeds, and the stars, in turn, quickly saturate them with heavy elements. This process can be stimulated by the merger of galaxies, which, indeed, are very close to each other. Approximately 12 billion years later - that is, in our day - to watch these galaxies is not easy. Their stars have long worked out all their ... Galaxies themselves have become ghosts, pale shadow of its bright and energetic young man, look at that we allowed a mere coincidence with gamma -ray burst.