gamma-ray burst
noun
a short-lived, extremely luminous burst of gamma radiation from an unknown astronomical source, occurring at random positions in the sky several times a day. GRB
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gamma-ray burst
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gamma ray burst
gamma ray burstIntense high-energy electromagnetic radiation, lasting between a fraction of a second and several minutes, emanating from distant regions of the universe. Recent theory suggests that they result from supernova explosions.
gamma-ray burst
Americannoun
gamma-ray burst
British
noun
gamma ray burst
Scientific
Example Sentences
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In 2022, Swift captured this image of a gamma-ray burst from a massive star dying two billion light-years from Earth.
From BBC ● Jul. 3, 2026
The massive explosion unleashed a gamma-ray burst, GRB230307A, the second brightest in 50 years of observations and about 1,000 times brighter than a typical gamma-ray burst.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 29, 2024
Last year, astronomers detected the brightest explosion on record, a gamma-ray burst known as GRB 221009A, which lasted just over ten hours.
From BBC ● May 12, 2023
"So, there's a reasonable chance this is the brightest gamma-ray burst to hit Earth since human civilization began."
From Scientific American ● Mar. 29, 2023
The gamma-ray burst would have stripped away the Earth’s ozone layer causing intense ultraviolet radiation from the sun and may account for climate changes observed at the time.
From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2015
Measurements show that this distant supernova closely matches the brightness and spectral features of SN 1998bw, a well known supernova linked to a gamma ray burst that exploded much closer to Earth.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 28, 2025
The gamma ray burst lasted seven minutes and was so powerful that it was off the scale, overwhelming the instruments that detected them.
From BBC ● Apr. 12, 2024
But to get a gamma ray burst like the one in 1979 required an even more magnetic object.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 8, 2021
So far, scientists have detected black holes only indirectly, by their signatures, such as a gamma ray burst, supernova or, perhaps, an object on the brink of a black hole’s event horizon.
From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2019
“It said, ‘This gamma ray burst has an interesting friend.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 16, 2017
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
