Gamma-ray bursts rule [
http://www.sciam.co…] the high-energy sky and Saturday another brief, intense flash of gamma-rays [
http://astro.caltec…] from the cosmos triggered space-based detectors. The orbiting Compton Observatory's BATSE instrument [
http://www.batse.ms…] quickly relayed the burst's approximate location to fast-slewing, ground-based cameras primed to search for an elusive optical flash. The result -- the GCN coordinated [
http://lheawww.gsfc…gcn_main.html ] ROTSE-I telephoto array [
http://www.umich.ed…] recorded a breakthrough detection only 22 seconds [
http://laastro.lanl…] after the burst trigger. Larger telescopes too captured the burster's optical counterpart and at right is an image identifying the candidate from the 60 inch Palomar reflector [
http://phobos.calte…public/images/p60.ht ml ]. At left is a prior sky survey image of the region which astonishingly shows a discernible smudge near the same position, likely the burster's host galaxy. The galaxy and bright burst suggest that this is the closest yet localized gamma-ray burst! Still, believed to be the most powerful explosions [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the Universe, the source of the incredible energy of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery.
Explanation
Gamma-ray bursts rule [
http://www.sciam.co…] the high-energy sky and Saturday another brief, intense flash of gamma-rays [
http://astro.caltec…] from the cosmos triggered space-based detectors. The orbiting Compton Observatory's BATSE instrument [
http://www.batse.ms…] quickly relayed the burst's approximate location to fast-slewing, ground-based cameras primed to search for an elusive optical flash. The result -- the GCN coordinated [
http://lheawww.gsfc…gcn_main.html ] ROTSE-I telephoto array [
http://www.umich.ed…] recorded a breakthrough detection only 22 seconds [
http://laastro.lanl…] after the burst trigger. Larger telescopes too captured the burster's optical counterpart and at right is an image identifying the candidate from the 60 inch Palomar reflector [
http://phobos.calte…public/images/p60.ht ml ]. At left is a prior sky survey image of the region which astonishingly shows a discernible smudge near the same position, likely the burster's host galaxy. The galaxy and bright burst suggest that this is the closest yet localized gamma-ray burst! Still, believed to be the most powerful explosions [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] in the Universe, the source of the incredible energy of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery.
Explanation
