The first-ever 3D simulation of the formation of a black hole jet reveals why mysterious gamma-ray bursts appear to blink and suggests that these mysterious phenomena might be much rarer than astronomers suspected. Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest and most powerful flashes of light known to exist in the universe. First detected in 1967, these blinding light explosions are generated when massive stars collapse into black holes, launching jets of material that squirt into space at nearly the speed of light.
Currently, satellites spot about one gamma-ray burst somewhere in the universe every day.
