From a NOIRLab press releases, for which this image was commissioned: 'Astronomers studying a
powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) with the Gemini South telescope, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab, may
have detected a never-before-seen way to destroy a star. Unlike most GRBs, which are caused by
exploding massive stars or the chance mergers of neutron stars, astronomers have concluded that this
GRB came instead from the collision of stars or stellar remnants in the jam-packed environment
surrounding a supermassive black hole at the core of an ancient galaxy.' This image depicts the
event taking place on the outskirts of the black hole's accretion disc.
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