mentions 3 three alternative interpretations for GRB 250702B:
1. Ultralong Collapsars: These stellar-engine models can explain long durations but struggle to account for the specific timing of this event. Specifically, they cannot easily produce a 12-hour gradual rise in X-rays followed by a multi-hour peak, as the jet would have to fight through a massive progenitor star while its power is still very low.
2. White Dwarf (WD) Tidal Disruptions: While an Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH) disrupting a White Dwarf could theoretically provide the necessary gravity, the numbers do not add up for this specific burst. The timing between flares is too long for a WD scenario, and the total energy required would demand an unrealistically narrow jet. When physical constraints like detonation are factored in, this model is considered highly unlikely.
3. Micro-TDEs (Main Sequence star by a stellar-mass BH/NS): This is considered a competitive alternative that can explain the burst's sub-second variability and long duration. However, it faces two main issues: current afterglow data suggests the surrounding gas density matches an IMBH environment better than a micro-TDE environment, and the burst’s extreme energy would require very high jet efficiency or a very narrow beam.
If this were a scifi horror story, it would be that there was a high energy event so far away and so long ago that the protracted duration is due to red-shift. Those X-rays were actually unimaginably higher energy particles and the duration of the event was also brief but has gotten smeared over time by inflation.
The paper on which the article is based,
https://watermark02.silverchair.com/stag328.pdf?token=AQECAH...
mentions 3 three alternative interpretations for GRB 250702B:
1. Ultralong Collapsars: These stellar-engine models can explain long durations but struggle to account for the specific timing of this event. Specifically, they cannot easily produce a 12-hour gradual rise in X-rays followed by a multi-hour peak, as the jet would have to fight through a massive progenitor star while its power is still very low.
2. White Dwarf (WD) Tidal Disruptions: While an Intermediate Mass Black Hole (IMBH) disrupting a White Dwarf could theoretically provide the necessary gravity, the numbers do not add up for this specific burst. The timing between flares is too long for a WD scenario, and the total energy required would demand an unrealistically narrow jet. When physical constraints like detonation are factored in, this model is considered highly unlikely.
3. Micro-TDEs (Main Sequence star by a stellar-mass BH/NS): This is considered a competitive alternative that can explain the burst's sub-second variability and long duration. However, it faces two main issues: current afterglow data suggests the surrounding gas density matches an IMBH environment better than a micro-TDE environment, and the burst’s extreme energy would require very high jet efficiency or a very narrow beam.
If this were a scifi horror story, it would be that there was a high energy event so far away and so long ago that the protracted duration is due to red-shift. Those X-rays were actually unimaginably higher energy particles and the duration of the event was also brief but has gotten smeared over time by inflation.
tldr: it was the office microwave.
(just kidding - probably a black hole)
You're referring to [1] which is certainly a fun (and instructive) story. But FRBs are pretty much the exact opposite to seven-hour events.
[1] https://www.nature.com/nature-index/news/its-the-microwave-h...
A black hole is, but what if something big fell into it?
3I/ATLAS first detected on: July 1 2025
Gamma ray burst that kept going for seven hours, fired three distinct bursts spread across an entire day: July 2 2025
just saying
This event originated in a different galaxy.