The Cosmic Savannah - Mini Part 3: The Most Powerful Explosion Ever Recorded

Hosted by Sumari Hattingh with Reikantseone Diretse. In our third mini episode, we chat with Reikantseone Diretse, a Master’s student from the University of Cape Town. He is involved with the ThunderKAT (The HUNt for Dynamic and Explosive Radio Transients) project. This project is a large program on the MeerKAT telescope. It studies extremely bright and energetic explosions in our sky, which are known as transients.   Part of Reikantseone’s research involves one particular transient event. It is a gamma-ray burst that was recorded in January 2019. This very rare explosion is the most powerful gamma-ray burst that has ever been recorded to date. Its radiation is almost a trillion times more energetic than that of visible light!   Reikantseone’s studies are funded by the Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA). His passion for astronomy reflects not only in the various projects that he is involved with. He also serves as the president for the Space Society of the University of Cape Town.   We've added a new way to donate to 365 Days of Astronomy to support editing, hosting, and production costs. Just visit: https://www.patreon.com/365DaysOfAstronomy and donate as much as you can! Share the podcast with your friends and send the Patreon link to them too! Every bit helps! Thank you! ------------------------------------ Do go visit http://astrogear.spreadshirt.com/ for cool Astronomy Cast and CosmoQuest t-shirts, coffee mugs and other awesomeness! http://cosmoquest.org/Donate This show is made possible through your donations. Thank you! (Haven't donated? It's not too late! Just click!) The 365 Days of Astronomy Podcast is produced by Astrosphere New Media. http://www.astrosphere.org/ Visit us on the web at 365DaysOfAstronomy.org or email us at [email protected].