In October 2022, astronomers discovered the most powerful cosmic explosion in history. The brightest gamma-ray burst, that is, the emission of gamma rays, among all known similar events was discovered. Astronomers later discovered that a gamma-ray burst called GRB 221009A was the result of a supernova explosion 2.4 billion light-years away.. The authors of a new study published on the arXiv preprint server believe that the extremely bright gamma-ray radiation was seen due to the fact that it interacted with elusive dark matter particles called axionomi, writes ScienceAlert.

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When a massive star died and exploded as a supernova, it produced the brightest gamma-ray burst ever known.. It was a record-breaking cosmic explosion, because the gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A exploded with an energy of up to 18 teraelectronvolts. But astronomers cannot see photons of such radiation with energies higher than 10 teraelectronvolts, the study authors say..

Given the enormous distance of 2.4 billion light years, gamma ray photons with such high energy must have been absorbed during interactions with other very powerful photons in the extragalactic background light that exists between galaxies.

The authors of the study believe that the detection of such a powerful flash of light was made possible due to the presence of particles called axions, which are the main candidates for the role of dark matter.. Scientists believe that the brightest gamma-ray burst became visible due to the interaction of photons of this radiation with axions in the presence of external magnetic fields.

Dark matter still remains one of the biggest mysteries of the Universe. If you take all the visible objects with mass in the Universe, then they create only a small part of the total gravity. The rest of the gravity, as scientists believe, is created by invisible dark matter, which makes up approximately 85% of the mass of the Universe..

Now many scientists believe that dark matter consists of hypothetical particles of axions. Theories suggest that these particles behave a little like neutrinos, meaning they interact poorly with ordinary matter. Neutrinos can pass through almost any object in the Universe.

The brightest cosmic explosion in history provides an excellent laboratory for detecting axions, study authors say. High-energy gamma-ray photons traveling over long distances must interact with extragalactic background light so strongly that it prevents these photons from reaching Earth. But scientists' calculations show that the interaction between photons and axions should make intergalactic space more transparent to high-energy light. Therefore, scientists believe that the detection of photons with energies up to 18 teraelectronvolts is indirect evidence of the existence of axions.

The conclusions of this study still require confirmation and scientists intend to continue their work in this direction.

As Focus already wrote, something strange happened in the Universe after the Big Bang and this will help understand dark matter. Physicists believe that dark photons will help us understand the mysterious form of matter that makes up 85% of the mass of the Universe..

Focus also wrote that physicists confirmed the prediction of Einstein's theory of relativity, which suggests the theoretical possibility of time travel back to the past.