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Day-long space explosion baffles astronomers
BBC Sky at Night Magazine
|November 2025
The massive gamma-ray burst lasted 1,000 times longer than any seen before
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A giant gamma-ray burst (GRB) has been detected that has astronomers scratching their heads. GRBs are some of the most powerful explosions in the Universe and are thought to be produced by the catastrophic destruction of stars. But this new explosion, spotted a few billion lightyears outside our Galaxy and named GRB 250702B, was unlike any seen before, bringing this theory into question.
This story is from the November 2025 edition of BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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