The findings were published in the journal Nature Astronomy on Thursday. The Wide-field X-ray Telescope onboard the EP satellite observed a faint pulse signal from a burst event in the soft X-ray band on March 15, This burst, designated as EPa, exhibited rapid brightness fluctuations and persisted for over 17 minutes before gradually fading away. Subsequent observations by telescopes from other countries confirmed that this burst originated from the distant early universe.
At the time of this burst, the universe was only 10 percent of its current age, and its signal took The discovery of EPa marks the first time that humanity has detected soft X-ray signals from an explosion in the early universe.
Scientists classify X-rays as "soft" or "hard" based on their energy level: soft X-rays have lower energy, while hard X-rays have higher energy.
This is just a beginning and the discovery showcased the remarkable potential of EP in detecting cosmic explosions from the early universe, said Yuan Weimin, principal investigator of the EP mission and a researcher at the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS. He initiated long-term radio band monitoring of this gamma-ray burst GRB. GRBs are among the most powerful explosive phenomena known in the universe, typically originating from the explosion of massive stars.
Roberto Ricci. Under normal circumstances, X-rays appear tens of seconds earlier than gamma rays, but in the case of EPa, the X-rays arrived more than six minutes earlier.
