Geoscan's Cubesat captures gamma-ray burst from the early Universe

A gamma-ray spectrometer jointly developed by the Russian Geoscan group of technology companies and the A. F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology on board the cubesat 239Alferov recorded a gamma-ray burst GRB 260101A. It occurred when the age of the universe was only about 2.5 billion years old. This was reported to Izvestia on January 21 by the Geoxane press service.

The GRB 260101A gamma-ray burst was also recorded by several space observatories: Swift, Fermi, Konus-Wind, SVOM and GECAM-B. Astronomers have determined that the source of a powerful gamma-ray burst is located at a great distance from Earth — the light from it flew for about 11.3 billion years. According to scientists, the cause of the event was the gravitational collapse of the core of a massive star that is dozens of times heavier than the Sun.

The gamma-ray spectrometer on board 239Alferov is said to be designed to detect powerful gamma-ray bursts beyond the Milky Way, flaring sources in the Galaxy, and solar flares. This information helps scientists to investigate the physics of the sources of cosmic disasters.

"The 239Alferov data will allow us to more accurately determine the position of gamma-ray bursts in the sky. This is the key to finding their traces in other types of radiation and linking them to sources of gravitational waves. The experience gained during the development of 239Alferov will allow Geoscan and the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology to effectively develop a group of small spacecraft for monitoring gamma-ray bursts," said Dmitry Svinkin, Senior Researcher at the Laboratory of Experimental Astrophysics at the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology.

Alexander Khokhlov, Head of the Geoscan Small Spacecraft Project Department, in turn, noted that the recorded gamma-ray flare curve coincided with data from other space observatories and confirmed the effectiveness of the 239Alferov cubesat and the gamma-ray spectrometer installed on it. According to him, this gives schoolchildren from all over Russia a tool to work with high-quality and accurate data from cubesat as part of the Space-pi project and helps them move from theory to practice in astronomy. Currently, this approach is becoming the basis for space education.

The 239Alferov satellite became the first spacecraft of a specialized grouping of the Space-pi project of the Supernova Hunters Foundation for the Promotion of Innovation, which recorded a gamma-ray burst. In 2027, it is planned to launch several more small astrophysical satellites of the group, three of which will be created by Geoscan together with the Laboratory of Experimental Astrophysics of the A. F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology. ANO will also participate in the development of the first satellite of this series.

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