Record-breaking gamma ray burst seems to be caused by a black hole engulfed by a bloated star

On July 2, 2025, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (Fermi-GBM) captured around three hours' worth of signals that appeared to come from the same source. When scientists compiled this data with signals picked up by multiple other instruments, like the Einstein Probe (EP) Wide-field X-ray Telescope and the Russian gamma-ray spectrometer, Konus-Wind, they found that they were dealing with the longest gamma ray burst (GRB) ever recorded. At around 25,000 seconds in duration (around seven hours), the GRB event scientists refer to as "GRB 250702B" beat out the prior record-holder, GRB 111209A, by 10,000 seconds.