A research team led by Professor Soebur Razzaque from the University of Johannesburg predicted gamma-ray burst (GRB) behaviour. One such burst recently disrupted cell phone reception in South Africa. While Earth gets blasted by mild short GRBs regularly, the research team found that giant flare GRB 200415A came from another possible source.
It erupted from a very rare, powerful neutron star called a magnetar, a star dying soon after the beginning of the Universe. Their findings were published in
Gamma-ray bursts explained
GRB explosions can disrupt mobile phone reception on Earth. Prof Razzaque explains that when a star dies, “it will get bigger and become a red giant star. After that it will collapse into a small compact star called a white dwarf”.