Swift detection of a gamma-ray burst.For the first time, a telescope has directly detected X rays from a gamma-ray burst gamma-ray burst n. A short-lived, localized, and intense burst of gamma radiation that originates outside the solar system from an unknown source. , the most powerful type of explosion in the universe. Gamma-ray bursts, which may be generated by the sudden collapse of extremely massive stars, also are the likely birth cries of black holes. The Swift spacecraft, launched by NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. late last November to study gamma-ray bursts and their afterglows, recorded the X rays on Jan. 17, during a relatively long-lived burst dubbed GRB GRB Gamma Ray Burst(er) GRB Graduate Recruitment Bureau GRB Grid Resource Broker GRB Grootschalig Referentiebestand (Dutch: large scale mapping program) GRB Gharb 050117. Three minutes and 12 seconds after Swifts gamma-ray telescope found the burst, the craft automatically turned its X-ray telescope to the same point in the sky. Previous X-ray images had captured a burst's afterglow afterglow small amounts of light emitted by a phosphor after the stimulating radiation has ceased. Seen in x-ray intensifying screens and fluoroscopic screens. , but not the burst itself, notes Swift principal investigator Neil Gehrels of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) is a major NASA space research laboratory established on May 1, 1959 as NASA's first space flight center. GSFC employs approximately 10,000 civil servants and contractors, and is located approximately 6.5 miles northeast of Washington, D.C. in Greenbelt, Md. The new images are the first to track the transition of a gamma-ray burst from its brilliant, initial flash to its slowly fading afterglow, which can last for weeks. Swift's third instrument, a combination ultraviolet-and visible-light detector, has just completed final testing and wasn't yet recording data when the burst erupted. Other telescopes, both in space and on the ground, are now studying the burst's afterglow and the region surrounding the burst.--R.C. |
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