NASA's Hubble Space Telescope found evidence on the origin of gamma ray bursts, the phenomenon could be a result of colliding neutron stars and black holes.
The discovery marks the most solid evidence to date that "short-duration gamma-ray bursts are triggered by the merger of two small, super-dense stellar objects, "a Science Daily press release reported.
Researchers used the telescope to observe (in infrared light) the fireball produced in the wake of a short gamma-ray burst (GRB).
GRBs are: "mysterious flashes of intense high-energy radiation that appear from random directions in space."
The "afterglow" revealed a new type of "stellar blast" that the scientists named a "kilonova."
The event is about 1,000 times brighter than a regular nova, but gives off only a fraction of the light a supernova does.
"This observation finally solves the mystery of the origin of short gamma-ray bursts," study leader Nial Tanvir, of the University of Leicester, said.
"Many astronomers, including our group, have already provided a great deal of evidence that long-duration gamma-ray bursts (those lasting more than two seconds) are produced by the collapse of extremely massive stars. But we only had weak circumstantial evidence that short bursts were produced by the merger of compact objects. This result now appears to provide definitive proof supporting that scenario," he said.
The observations made using the Hubble telescope are believed to be "smoking gun" evidence indicating the bursts are caused by collisions of objects such as a pair of neutron stars, or possibly a black hole with a neutron.
The theory is that short-duration GRBs are spawned when two super-dense objects merge together in a "death spiral." The system emits gravitational radiation, when the ripples of gravity subside it draws the objects closer together. Eventually the objects spiral together, giving off radioactive material in the process. As this material "heats up and expands" it is believed to give off the detectable glow.
The discovery implies chemical elements, such as gold and platinum, could originate from kilonovas. The materials could be sprayed into space, set to become the building blocks of future stars and even planets.
The finding also implies the presence of "intense gravitational waves," which were first predicted by Albert Einstein, but have not been officially discovered.
