Chinese scientists detect universe’s highest energy gamma-ray line

Chinese scientists detected the highest-energy gamma-ray line ever observed, with up to 37 million electron volts, from an extraordinarily bright gamma-ray burst (GRB), according to state-run media on Thursday.


According to the Global Times, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) achieved the discovery.

According to the paper, this gamma-ray line is the greatest energy spectral line feature that celestial objects have ever emitted. Scientists also discovered that the gamma-ray line changes over time using a power-law function, which provides important insights into its origin.

GRBs are among the universe’s most intense explosive occurrences, usually caused by the core collapse of enormous stars or the collision of two compact stars, such as neutron stars and black holes.