China's Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory, or LHAASO, is one of the world's most advanced of its kind. And it's just had the details of very rare findings published in the internationally renowned journal, Science. Sun Ye has the story. 

The Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory, or LHAASO's latest study was published on Science Friday, giving the world its first understanding on multiple perspectives into the afterglow of what's been described as " the brightest-of-all-time Gamma Ray Burst."

"Extremely bright," and as LHAASO's scientists say, findings of this kind are extremely rare.

CAO ZHEN Chief Scientist of LHAASO "The gamma-ray burst was a very surprising event, so rare, so special, so surprising and delightful that it was like fireworks. The world has studied gamma-ray bursts for over 60 years. In previously measured explosions, events this bright were very rare, occurring only once every few to ten thousand years. And then this beam of light happened to land right in the middle of LHAASO's field of view. You can imagine how this is even rarer than an event that occurs once every ten thousand years."

Situated over 4,400 meters above sea level in Dao Cheng County, Sichuan Province, LHAASO started running less than two years ago in July 2021.

It's the only facility in the world able to capture the rare sighting events, and did so on October 19, 2022.

CAO ZHEN Chief Scientist of LHAASO "If there were no starting point for this phenomena, you don't know when it happened and you don't know where it came from. For such an instantaneous process, LHAASO's work is impressive. Because it works around the clock, it's able to observe one sixth of the sky at any time. And data are continuously stored and can be reviewed at any time. Of course, LHAASO also has other remarkable features, for example, it can detect the highest energy photons that we humans are able to currently detect."

LHAASO now has scientists from over 30 domestic and international universities and institutes, working together in collaboration.

And the latest publication in SCIENCE is only one in what's expected to be a long line of new findings from LHAASO.

CAO ZHEN Chief Scientist of LHAASO "LHAASO is like a gold mine. In other words, it's like entering no man's land. People see many novel phenomena that have never been explored before. While this particular gamma-ray burst was an unexpected event, according to our planned scientific objectives we'll also discover new phenomena that gush out."

He also said LHAASO's data and findings will continue to open to the world. SY, CGTN, BJ.