A Massive Explosion Lit Up Deep Space — Scientists Detected It Within Minutes

A gamma-ray burst designated GRB 260127A produced one of the Universe’s most powerful kinds of explosions. NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory detected the flash before a ground-based telescope began recording its fading glow only minutes later.

The achievement established a speed record for millimetre and submillimetre observations of a gamma-ray burst. It did not mean scientists witnessed the distant explosion immediately after it physically happened; the record measures the response after its radiation reached Earth.