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Update: Possible ‘Nearby’ Gamma Ray Burst Alert Was False Alarm
Color view of M31 (The Andromeda Galaxy). Credit and copyright: Terry Hancock.
Following the late night news yesterday of a possible gamma ray burst in our next door neighboring galaxy Andromeda, it was an “Oh darn!” moment this morning to find out the big event was likely a false alarm. The false alert — and the ensuing false excitement — was due to an unlikely combination of Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) detecting what was a previously known object and a power outage at Goddard Space Flight Center and Swift Data Center, so that the data couldn’t be analyzed by the regular team of astronomers around the world.
Also, according to a blog post by Phil Evans, a post-doctoral research assistant from the University of Leicester and a member of the support team for Swift, the Swift team never actually announced a claim of such an event, and it turns out that the tentative data that triggered this story was overstated.
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Read the rest of Update: Possible ‘Nearby’ Gamma Ray Burst Alert Was False Alarm (595 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2014. |
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Post tags: Andromeda Galaxy, gamma ray burst, Swift Telescope
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Source: http://www.universetoday.com/112197/update-possible-nearby-gamma-ray-burst-alert-was-false-alarm/
