Record-breaking ‘BOAT’ gamma-ray burst continues to amaze scientists

Last year, on Oct. 9, scientists witnessed an anomaly in the sky. 

Sprouting from the darkness between stars, an abundance of deep space X-rays started to flood observatories. These signals appeared to be connected to an immensely bright event happening in our galaxy known as a gamma-ray burst (GRB) — an outpouring of highly energetic particles linked to things like star explosions and black hole births. But as one expert said, for instance, this GRB is to a standard one what a floodlight is to a lightbulb.