In the hours after this unusual gamma-ray burst was discovered, astrophysicists rushed to learn more.

CNN: Why gamma-ray burst shocked scientists

This evidence is suggestive that rather than a typical supernova, this was actually a gamma-ray burst.

FORBES: Scientists May Have Found The Galaxy's Youngest Black Hole

To detect and explain this previously unknown type of gamma-ray burst is a real achievement for the University of Warwick.

BBC: NASA's Swift satellite observes massive supernova stars

But for a short-lived event such as a gamma-ray burst it means that the same blast may become visible again in the future.

ECONOMIST: An illuminating burst

Researchers working on the Nasa mission say the extraordinary longevity of the gamma-ray burst may force them to change their theories about how these colossal blasts work.

BBC: Telescope spies cataclysmic blast

The work was reported in mid-October by Jay Norris, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, at the Fifth Huntsville (Alabama) Gamma-Ray Burst Symposium.

CNN: Gamma ray finding may open new window on universe

"This is the most spectacular burst ever seen at high energy, " said Dr Valerie Connaughton, a scientist from the University of Alabama, Huntsville, and a member of Fermi's Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) instrument team.

BBC: Telescope spies cataclysmic blast

Compelling independent corroboration would come from a spacecraft that can see the burst of gamma-ray radiation expected to accompany the cataclysmic events that produce gravitational waves.

BBC: Lab tuned to gravity's 'ripples'

That debris would not only have produced the gamma ray burst, but also some X-ray emissions that were also observed from the explosion.

FORBES: Scientists Develop Two Scenarios For Cosmic Christmas Explosion

In this scenario, the gamma ray burst was caused by a large, comet-like object that fell into a neutron star.

FORBES: Scientists Develop Two Scenarios For Cosmic Christmas Explosion

Just nine days later, the bright nearby burst happened, leading to the Fermi detection of the highest energy gamma-ray ever.

CNN: Why gamma-ray burst shocked scientists

Fusa Miyake discovered Carbon-14 and Beryllium-10 traces in tree rings from the era, which point to a gamma ray burst from a celestial body other than the Sun.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 1.26.13: quadruple DNA helixes, Byzantine mutants and battling hospital bugs