gamma-ray burst

noun

gam·​ma-ray burst ˈga-mə-ˈrā- 

variants or less commonly gamma ray burst

plural gamma-ray bursts also gamma ray bursts

: a brief, powerful jet of gamma rays detected deep in space that is generated by the collapse and explosion of a celestial object

… researchers … have discovered a gamma-ray burst (GRB) approximately 2.4 billion light-years away in the constellation Sagitta that ranks as the brightest ever observed.

—Space Daily

Eventually, though, the neutron star slows down, probably because of magnetic braking. Then it implodes, touching off a gamma ray burst.

—Govert Schilling

—abbreviation GRB

Examples of gamma-ray burst in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The particles can pass through any kind of matter and contain information about some of the most energetic events in the universe, such as gamma-ray bursts. —Ashley Strickland, CNN, 15 Feb. 2025

Because virtually no material changes their course, however, the direction of neutrinos’ travel should point reliably back to the mysterious and incredibly powerful cosmic accelerators that launched them, such as a gamma-ray burst. —Sara Hashemi, Smithsonian Magazine, 14 Feb. 2025

However, nothing would protect us, or the planet, from the most powerful source of gamma rays in the known universe, gamma-ray bursts. —Robert Lea, Space.com, 12 Feb. 2025

Scientists first detected high-energy gamma-ray bursts in Earth’s atmosphere in the 1990s. —Paul Smaglik, Discover Magazine, 3 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1973, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for gamma-ray burst

• amerced
• cloudburst
• coerced
• conversed
• disbursed
• dispersed
• headfirst
• immersed
• outburst
• rehearsed
• reversed
• submersed