Star’s collapse caused brightest cosmic blast

The collapse of a massive star may have caused the brightest cosmic explosion of all time, astronomers have said.

The luminous burst of light, which occurred more than two billion light years from Earth and lasted mere seconds,was so bright that it was said to have blinded space instruments.

Scientists said this type of event is a gamma-ray burst (GRB), known for being some of the strongest and brightest explosions in the universe.

However this g rb, dub bed GRB 221009A, was deemed so exceptional that astronomers said it was the bright est of all time( boat) since the beginning of human civilisation.

Now an international team of scientists analysed data from Nasa's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The findings, published in the journal Nature Astronomy, suggest Boat's likely origin is an explosion, or supernova, that came after the collapse of a massive star.

It is believed supernovas produce heavy elements such as platinum and gold, but when the researchers looked, they found no evidence of these precious metals, also raising fresh questions about how they came into existence.

Dr Peter Blanchard, of Northwestern University in the US who led the study, said: “When we confirmed that the GRB was generated by the collapse of a massive star, that gave us the opportunity to test a hypothesis for how some of the heaviest elements in the universe are formed.

“We did not see signatures of these heavy elements, suggesting that extremely energetic GRBS like the Boat do not produce these elements.

“That doesn't mean that all GRBS do not produce them, but it' s a key piece of informationas we continue to understand where these heavy elements come from.

“Future observations with JWST will determine if the Boat's ‘normal’ cousins produce these elements.”