Gemini North image (Surprise kilonova upends established understanding of long gamma-ray bursts)

This Gemini North image, superimposed on an image taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the telltale near-infrared afterglow of a kilonova produced by a long GRB (GRB 211211A). This discovery challenges the prevailing theory that long GRBs exclusively come from supernovae, the end-of-life explosions of massive stars.

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Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani; NASA/ESA