Dhaka, Oct. 1 -- Astronomers say they have traced a puzzling type of bright X-ray flash to the collision of two neutron stars.

The Einstein Probe satellite, launched in 2024, has detected hundreds of these flashes from distant galaxies, reports The Independent.

Some have been tied to the deaths of massive stars, but many have remained unexplained because scientists could not pin down their distance or energy.

The breakthrough came when the satellite sent out an alert about a flash that lasted almost 10 minutes.

Telescopes including the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Very Large Array (VLA) turned towards it within moments.

Their data point to the birth of a magnetar, a neutron star with an extremely...