On December 11 astronomers found [
http://www.raptor.l…NoFrame_Archive.htm ] one of the brightest and most distant explosions in the Universe - a gamma-ray burst [
http://science.msfc…newhome/headlines/as t26mar99_1.htm ] - hiding in the glare of a relatively nearby star. The earliest image of the burst's visible light was caught by an earthbound RAPTOR [
http://www.raptor.l…] (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response). The two exposures inset above were taken by a RAPTOR unit about 65 seconds (left) and 9 minutes (top right) after high-energy radiation from the burst, dutifully cataloged as GRB 021211 [
http://space.mit.ed…GRB021211/ ], was identified by the orbiting HETE-2 satellite [
http://space.mit.ed…]. One of only two optical transients (OTs) ever found [
http://science.nasa…ast27jan99_1.htm ] at times so close to a burst's gamma-ray emission [
http://www.pbs.org/…], the fading visible light source is indicated by arrows, blended with the image of foreground stars toward the constellation Canis Minor [
http://www.starshin…skychart.asp?abbr=CM I ]. The RAPTOR unit (lower inset) is designed with peripheral low resolution cameras and a central, sensitive high resolution imager, in analogy with a predator's vision [
http://www.raptor.l…NoFrame_SysOverview. htm ]. In the future, the RAPTOR project expects its innovative instruments to be able to independently discover and catalog a host of cosmic things that go bump in the night [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…].
Explanation
On December 11 astronomers found [
http://www.raptor.l…NoFrame_Archive.htm ] one of the brightest and most distant explosions in the Universe - a gamma-ray burst [
http://science.msfc…newhome/headlines/as t26mar99_1.htm ] - hiding in the glare of a relatively nearby star. The earliest image of the burst's visible light was caught by an earthbound RAPTOR [
http://www.raptor.l…] (RAPid Telescopes for Optical Response). The two exposures inset above were taken by a RAPTOR unit about 65 seconds (left) and 9 minutes (top right) after high-energy radiation from the burst, dutifully cataloged as GRB 021211 [
http://space.mit.ed…GRB021211/ ], was identified by the orbiting HETE-2 satellite [
http://space.mit.ed…]. One of only two optical transients (OTs) ever found [
http://science.nasa…ast27jan99_1.htm ] at times so close to a burst's gamma-ray emission [
http://www.pbs.org/…], the fading visible light source is indicated by arrows, blended with the image of foreground stars toward the constellation Canis Minor [
http://www.starshin…skychart.asp?abbr=CM I ]. The RAPTOR unit (lower inset) is designed with peripheral low resolution cameras and a central, sensitive high resolution imager, in analogy with a predator's vision [
http://www.raptor.l…NoFrame_SysOverview. htm ]. In the future, the RAPTOR project expects its innovative instruments to be able to independently discover and catalog a host of cosmic things that go bump in the night [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…].
Explanation
