Bright, Long-Lasting GRB Sets Energy Output Record

(Before It's News)

The maps in this animation show how the sky looks at gamma-ray energies above 100 million electron volts (MeV) with a view centered on the north galactic pole. The first frame shows the sky during a three-hour interval prior to GRB 130427A. The second frame shows a three-hour interval starting 2.5 hours before the burst, and ending 30 minutes into the event. The Fermi team chose this interval to demonstrate how bright the burst was relative to the rest of the gamma-ray sky. This burst was bright enough that Fermi autonomously left its normal surveying mode to give the LAT instrument a better view, so the three-hour exposure following the burst does not cover the whole sky in the usual way. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration. (Click on image if the animation is not working)

Last weekend (April 27, 2013), the Fermi and Swift spacecraft witnessed a “shockingly” bright burst of gamma rays from a dying star. Named GRB 130427A, it produced one of the longest lasting and brightest GRBs ever detected.

Because Swift was able to rapidly determine the GRB’s position in the sky, and also because of the duration and brightness of the burst, the GRB was able to be detected in optical, infrared and radio wavelengths by ground-based observatories. Astronomers quickly learned that the GRB had one other near-record breaking quality: it was relatively close, as it took place just 3.6 billion light-years away.

“This GRB is in the closest 5 percent of bursts, so the big push now is to find an emerging supernova, which accompanies nearly all long GRBs at this distance,” said Neil Gehrels, principal investigator for Swift.
(…)
Read the rest of Bright, Long-Lasting GRB Sets Energy Output Record (415 words)

© nancy for Universe Today, 2013. |
Permalink |
No comment |

Post tags: Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Gamma Ray Bursts, Swift Telescope

Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh

• Hubble sees the remains of a star gone supernova
• Birth Of A Black Hole Revealed By New Kind Of Cosmic Flash
• Comet Ison C/2012 S1 Update: Earth Passing Through Swarm of Debris
• Using the Sky
• Planet’s Magnetosphere Changes With The Seasons
• Massive Appearance of Mysterious Unidentified Objects – Two of them Seem to Exits Through the Sun
• The Texas UFO Invasion of April 30th, 2013
• The Rosy Remains of a Star’s Final Days
• How Saturn’s Magnetic Activity Could Help us Pinpoint Time on the Ringed Planet
• This Week’s Best Space Photos – May 3, 2013