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Astronomers call it the monster. It was the biggest and brightest cosmic explosion ever witnessed and had it been closer, earth would have been obliterated.
Orbiting telescopes recorded the fireworks show of a lifetime earlier this year when they spotted what is known as a gamma ray burst in a far-off galaxy.
The only bigger display astronomers know of was the "Big Bang" that created the universe.
"This burst was a once-in-a-century cosmic event," Nasa astrophysics chief Paul Hertz said. But because this blast was 3.7 billion light-years away, mankind was spared. In fact, no one on Earth could even see it with the naked eye.
A gamma ray burst happens when a massive star dies, collapses into a brand-new black hole, explodes in what is called a supernova and ejects energetic radiation. The radiation travels across the universe at the speed of light.
A planet caught in one of these bursts would lose its atmosphere instantly and would be left a burnt cinder, astronomers say.
Scientists might be able to detect warning signs of an impending gamma ray burst.
But if a burst were headed for earth - and the chances of that happening are close to zero, astronomers say - there would not be anything anybody could do about it.
Telescopes in orbit operated by the US space agency Nasa have been seeing bursts for more than two decades, spotting one every couple of days. But this one, witnessed on April 27, set records, according to four studies published on Thursday in the journal Science.
It flooded Nasa instruments with five times the energy of its nearest competitor, a 1999 blast, said University of Alabama at Huntsville astrophysicist Rob Preece, author of one of the studies.
It started with a star that had 20 to 30 times the mass of our sun but was only a couple of times wider, so it was incredibly dense. It exploded in a certain violent way. In general, gamma ray bursts were "the most titanic explosions in the universe", and this one was so big that some of the telescope instruments hit their peak, Preece said. It was far stronger and lasted longer than previous ones.
"I call it the monster," Preece said. In fact, one of the other studies, not written by Preece, used the word "monster" in its title, which is unusual language for a scientific report.
One of the main reasons this was so bright was that relative to the thousands of other gamma ray bursts astronomers have seen, the monster was close by cosmic standards. A light-year is almost 10 trillion kilometres.
Most of the bursts Nasa telescopes have seen have been twice as distant as this one. Other explosions could be this big, but they were so much farther away, they didn't seem so bright when they reached Earth, the studies' authors said.
Astronomers say it is incredibly unlikely that a gamma ray burst - especially a big one like this - could ever occur in our galaxy. Harvard university's Avi Loeb, who wasn't part of the studies, put the chances at less than one in 10 million.
Our galaxy didn't have many of the highly intense type of star that lent itself to gamma ray bursts, said Charles Dermer, a co-author of the studies and an astrophysicist at the US Naval Research Laboratory.
"The chance of anything happening and being dangerous is virtually nil," he said.
Also, because a burst is concentrated like a focused searchlight, it has to be pointing at you to be seen and to be dangerous.
"Either it's pointed at us or it's not," Preece said. "If it's not, yay! Civilization survives and we see maybe a supernova."


Nasa astronomers report 'monster' gamma ray burst from death of star

An artists impression of how a gamma ray burst occurs with a massive star collapsing, beaming out focused and deadly light. Picture: AP

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Astronomers say 'monster' planet explosion would have obliterated earth if it had been closer - but it was 3.7 billion light years away


Astronomers call it the monster. It was the biggest and brightest cosmic explosion ever witnessed and had it been closer, earth would have been obliterated.


Nasa astronomers report 'monster' gamma ray burst from death of star

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Astronomers say 'monster' planet explosion would have obliterated earth if it had been closer - but it was 3.7 billion light years away

Astronomers say 'monster' planet explosion would have obliterated earth if it had been closer - but it was 3.7 billion light years away