A flash of X-rays from a galaxy hovering nearly invisibly on the edge of infinity. Then whatever had gone bump in the night was over and the X-rays died. The most likely explanation, Dr. Bauer said in the paper and in an interview, is that the X-rays are the afterglow from a gamma ray burst seen sideways. View all New York Times newsletters. “Unfortunately there is no ‘smoking gun’ evidence that favors one scenario over the other here,” Dr. Bauer wrote in a recent blog post.

Source: New York Times March 31, 2017 21:33 UTC