00:03few things in space are as bright as a supernova but recently astronomers captured a flash out in
00:09the 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 they turned
00:25a telescope in its direction it's now been nicknamed boat for short which stands for brightest
00:30of all time and they say it was caused by the death of a star some 2.4 billion light
00:35years away
00:35after shedding its outer material it released a targeted jet and a giant expulsion of gas
00:40something unexpected before it collapsed into a black hole the researchers say this is changing
00:45our understanding of gamma ray bursts with lead researcher on the project astronomer brendan
00:49o'connor saying about it quote grb 221009a might be the equivalent rosetta stone of long grbs forcing
00:57us to revise our standard theories of how relativistic outflows are formed in collapsing massive stars this
01:03gamma ray burst was also particularly bright for astronomers on earth because one of its twin jets
01:08was pointed directly at us giving scientists a front review with o'connor adding because this burst is so
01:14bright and also nearby we think this is a once in a thousand year opportunity to address some of the
01:18the most fundamental questions regarding these explosions from the formation of black holes to tests of dark
01:24matter models
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