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APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow: Supernova Connection
Explanation: What causes the mysterious gamma-ray bursts ? Indicated in this Hubble Space Telescope exposure of an otherwise unremarkable field in the constellation Crater , is the dwindling optical afterglow of a gamma-ray burst first detected by the Beppo-SAX satellite on 2001 December 11. The burst's host galaxy , billions of light-years distant, is the faint smudge extending above and to the left of the afterglow position. After rapidly catching the fading x-ray light from the burst with the orbiting XMM-Newton observatory , astronomers are now reporting the telltale signatures of elements magnesium, silicon, sulphur, argon, and calcium - material most likely found in an expanding debris cloud produced by the explosion of a massive star. The exciting result is evidence that the gamma-ray burst itself is linked to a very energetic supernova explosion which may have preceded the powerful flash of gamma-rays by up to a few days.
| Date | April 5, 2002 |
|---|---|
| Credit |
Credit: HST Image: D.W. Fox, J.S. Bloom, S.R. Kulkarni ( Caltech ), et al. XMM Result: J.N. Reeves, D. Watson, J.P. Osborne ( University of Leicester ), et al. |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |