00:00Few things in space are as bright as a supernova, but recently astronomers captured a flash out in
00:08the cosmos so great their instruments had trouble measuring it. This is gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A,
00:16which was so bright not only was it named, but it's what experts believe is also the birth of
00:20a black hole. It was detected in October last year, and when astronomers first noticed it,
00:25they turned a telescope in its direction. It's now been nicknamed boat for short,
00:29which stands for brightest of all time, and they say it was caused by the death of a star
00:33some 2.4 billion light-years away. After shedding its outer material, it released a targeted jet
00:38and a giant expulsion of gas, something unexpected before it collapsed into a black hole. The
00:43researchers say this is changing our understanding of gamma-ray bursts, with lead researcher on the
00:48project, astronomer Brendan O'Connor, saying about it, quote, GRB 221009A might be the equivalent
00:54rosetta stone of long GRBs, forcing us to revise our standard theories of how relativistic outflows
01:00are formed in collapsing massive stars. This gamma-ray burst was also particularly bright for
01:05astronomers on Earth, because one of its twin jets was pointed directly at us, giving scientists a
01:10front review, with O'Connor adding, because this burst is so bright and also nearby, we think this is a
01:16once-in-a-thousand-year opportunity to address some of the most fundamental questions regarding these
01:20explosions, from the formation of black holes to tests of dark matter models.
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