1in10000Year

NASA has confirmed that on October 9, 2023, our solar system was struck by a gamma-ray burst originating 1,900 light years away that was brighter than any since the beginning of human civilization, in what the space agency calls a "1 in 10,000 year" event that blinded space satellite sensors.Gamma-ray bursts are one of the odd surprises that science sometimes encounters. To help enforce the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, the United States launched a series of Vela satellites that were designed to detect nuclear explosions…

Gamma-ray bursts are the most luminous explosions in the cosmos. Astronomers think most occur when the core of a massive star runs out of nuclear fuel, collapses under its own weight, and forms a black hole, as illustrated in this animation. The black hole then drives jets of particles that drill all the way through the collapsing star at nearly the speed of light. These jets pierce through the star, emitting X-rays and gamma rays (magenta) as they stream into space. They then plow into material surrounding the doomed…

The extreme heat that obliterated temperature records in the Pacific Northwest in 2021 will likely occur just once every 10,000 years. Researchers from UCLA used multiple climate models to determine that the extraordinary heat disaster last year was a highly improbable event, even in the age of climate change. Previous studies suggested that the deadly heat wave, which killed about 800 people, had a probability of near zero. “Accounting for the fact that things have gotten warmer, and even given the amount of warming…