Supernova's 'fizzled' gamma-ray burst

On Aug. 26, 2020, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope detected a pulse of high-energy radiation that had been racing toward Earth for nearly half the present age of the universe. Lasting only about a second, it turned out to be one for the record books -- the shortest gamma-ray burst (GRB) caused by the death of a massive star ever seen.