Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) and JWST
In 1963, satellites designed to enforce nuclear test ban treaties detected something a little unexpected, gamma ray bursts not coming from nuclear bombs but from outer space.
It was almost 30-40 more years before we were able to detect and view the aftermath of these events, owing to their random nature, appearing anywhere in the sky and often lasting mere seconds.
Yet, in those seconds more energy was released than entire galaxies.
Even today, we're not entirely certain what the GRB is, some theories suggest it's a supernova from a particularly large star, others suggest it's the collision between neutron stars or even a neutron star and a black hole.
GRB 221009A
On Oct 9th 2022 Swift and Firmi satellites picked up the largest ever detected GRB, releasing more than 1000 times the energy in a few moments than our Sun has in it's entire life time so far.
Sadly, the event occurred behind the dust and gas of our own spiral galaxies arms, but that's where JWST came in, able to swing around and view the location as an aftermath of the event.
JWST was not able to spot any supernova afterglow, which normally would last for months after, leading the team to suspect that this particular GRB at least, was not caused by a supernova.
