Telescope Catches Cosmic Explosion Faster Than Ever Before

In January 2026, a team in Hawaii made a big step forward. They work with a telescope on a mountain. The telescope is called the Submillimeter Array. It now watches cosmic explosions very fast. A cosmic explosion is called a gamma-ray burst. It is the strongest explosion in the universe. It happens when a big star falls apart.

Before this, other telescopes could watch fast. X-ray telescopes and light telescopes could do it. But millimeter telescopes were slow. The team fixed this problem. They made a new computer system. When NASA's telescope sees a gamma-ray burst, it sends a message. The message reaches the team in 90 seconds. The telescope starts moving in 4 minutes. The telescope is ready in 13 minutes.

Garrett Keating is a scientist. He watched the system work. He said it was amazing. Ranjani Srinavasan is the director. She said the old way took many hours. The team wants to be even faster. They want to be ready in only 2 or 3 minutes. This new way is 100 times faster than before.

Sources: phys.org / The Astrophysical Journal Letters