The Astrophysical Journal Letters (Jan 2023)
GRB 221009A: The BOAT
- Eric Burns,
- Dmitry Svinkin,
- Edward Fenimore,
- D. Alexander Kann,
- José Feliciano Agüí Fernández,
- Dmitry Frederiks,
- Rachel Hamburg,
- Stephen Lesage,
- Yuri Temiraev,
- Anastasia Tsvetkova,
- Elisabetta Bissaldi,
- Michael S. Briggs,
- Sarah Dalessi,
- Rachel Dunwoody,
- Cori Fletcher,
- Adam Goldstein,
- C. Michelle Hui,
- Boyan A. Hristov,
- Daniel Kocevski,
- Alexandra L. Lysenko,
- Bagrat Mailyan,
- Joseph Mangan,
- Sheila McBreen,
- Judith Racusin,
- Anna Ridnaia,
- Oliver J. Roberts,
- Mikhail Ulanov,
- Peter Veres,
- Colleen A. Wilson-Hodge,
- Joshua Wood
Affiliations
- Eric Burns
- ORCiD
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University , Baton Rouge, LA 70803 USA ; [email protected]
- Dmitry Svinkin
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
- Edward Fenimore
- Los Alamos National Laboratory, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
- D. Alexander Kann
- ORCiD
- Hessian Research Cluster ELEMENTS, Giersch Science Center, Max-von-Laue-Straße 12, Goethe University Frankfurt , Campus Riedberg, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- José Feliciano Agüí Fernández
- ORCiD
- Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) , Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, E-18008 Granada, Spain
- Dmitry Frederiks
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
- Rachel Hamburg
- ORCiD
- Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS/IN2P3, IJCLab , F-91405 Orsay, France
- Stephen Lesage
- ORCiD
- Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA; Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville , Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
- Yuri Temiraev
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
- Anastasia Tsvetkova
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia; Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Cagliari , SP Monserrato-Sestu, km 0.7, I-09042 Monserrato, Italy
- Elisabetta Bissaldi
- ORCiD
- Dipartimento Interateneo di Fisica , Politecnico di Bari, Bari, Italy; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare , Sezione di Bari, Bari, Italy
- Michael S. Briggs
- ORCiD
- Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA; Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville , Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
- Sarah Dalessi
- ORCiD
- Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA; Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville , Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
- Rachel Dunwoody
- ORCiD
- School of Physics, Centre for Space Research, Science Center North, University College Dublin , Dublin 4, Ireland
- Cori Fletcher
- ORCiD
- Science and Technology Institute, Universities Space and Research Association , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA
- Adam Goldstein
- ORCiD
- Science and Technology Institute, Universities Space and Research Association , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA
- C. Michelle Hui
- ORCiD
- ST12 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA
- Boyan A. Hristov
- ORCiD
- Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville , Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
- Daniel Kocevski
- ORCiD
- ST12 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA
- Alexandra L. Lysenko
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
- Bagrat Mailyan
- ORCiD
- Department of Aerospace, Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology , Melbourne, FL 32901, USA
- Joseph Mangan
- ORCiD
- Laboratoire de Physique des 2 infinis Irène Joliot-Curie—IJCLab, CNRS / Université Paris-Saclay / Université Paris Cité , Bâtiment 104 Rue Henri Becquerel, F-91405 Orsay Campus, France
- Sheila McBreen
- ORCiD
- School of Physics, Centre for Space Research, Science Center North, University College Dublin , Dublin 4, Ireland
- Judith Racusin
- ORCiD
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
- Anna Ridnaia
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
- Oliver J. Roberts
- ORCiD
- Science and Technology Institute, Universities Space and Research Association , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35805, USA
- Mikhail Ulanov
- ORCiD
- Ioffe Institute , 26 Politekhnicheskaya, St. Petersburg, 194021, Russia
- Peter Veres
- ORCiD
- Department of Space Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville , 320 Sparkman Drive, Huntsville, AL 35899, USA; Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville , Huntsville, AL 35899, USA
- Colleen A. Wilson-Hodge
- ORCiD
- ST12 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA
- Joshua Wood
- ORCiD
- ST12 Astrophysics Branch, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL 35812, USA
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/acc39c
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 946,
no. 1
p. L31
Abstract
GRB 221009A has been referred to as the brightest of all time (BOAT). We investigate the veracity of this statement by comparing it with a half century of prompt gamma-ray burst observations. This burst is the brightest ever detected by the measures of peak flux and fluence. Unexpectedly, GRB 221009A has the highest isotropic-equivalent total energy ever identified, while the peak luminosity is at the ∼99th percentile of the known distribution. We explore how such a burst can be powered and discuss potential implications for ultralong and high-redshift gamma-ray bursts. By geometric extrapolation of the total fluence and peak flux distributions, GRB 221009A appears to be a once-in-10,000-year event. Thus, it is almost certainly not the BOAT over all of cosmic history; it may be the brightest gamma-ray burst since human civilization began.
Keywords
