GRB 980703: A Reassuring Redshift

Explanation: In the old days, just over a year ago, astronomers had little idea of the true distance to gamma-ray bursts . Did these enigmatic explosions occur in our outer Galaxy , or in the outer Universe ? Last May, a first telling distance measure was made - GRB 970508 showed an absorption line with a redshift of about 0.8 - indicating that this gamma-ray burst (GRB) was an enormous distance away. Skeptics , however, are not always convinced by an unrepeated measurement. Since then, though, other tantalizing coincidences have occurred: GRB 971214 occurred unusually near a galaxy with the enormous redshift of 3.4, and GRB 980425 occurred unusually near a peculiar low-redshift supernova . Skeptics were intrigued. Now, the potentially definitive implications of the above-pictured optical transient might impress even the cautious. GRB 980703 's optical transient shows a well-measured redshift from both an absorption line and an emission line : 0.97. The above negative highlights the uncommon transient source with the label “OT”, while letters designate common comparison stars .