Latest Gamma-ray burst Stories

NASA's Swift satellite and ground-based telescopes have discovered the most distant exploding star on record, confirming a 1999 prediction made by University of Chicago astrophysicist Don Lamb and Daniel Reichart, who was then a graduate student at Chicago. Now a faculty member at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Reichart led the team that discovered the afterglow of the explosion, called a gamma-ray burst (GRB), which culminated in the confirmation of his and Lamb's earlier...

LONDON -- A team of Italian astronomers said on Monday they had witnessed the afterglow from one of the brightest and most distant gamma-ray bursts ever detected.Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful and most brilliant explosions known to man, other than the theoretical Big Bang that many astronomers believe gave birth to the universe -- but their cause remains unknown.The burst known as GRB050904 was first detected on September 4 by the Swift satellite and was more than 12,500 million light...

Astronomers Find Farthest Known Gamma-Ray Burst with ESO VLT ESO -- An Italian team of astronomers has observed the afterglow of a Gamma-Ray Burst that is the farthest known ever. With a measured redshift of 6.3, the light from this very remote astronomical source has taken 12,700 million years to reach us. It is thus seen when the Universe was less than 900 million years old, or less than 7 percent its present age. "This also means that it is among the intrinsically brightest Gamma-Ray...

ESA -- An international team of scientists has uncovered a rare type of neutron star so elusive that it took three satellites to identify it. The findings, made with ESA's Integral satellite and two NASA satellites, reveals new insights about star birth and death in our Galaxy. We report this discovery, highlighting the complementary nature of European and US spacecraft, on the day in which ESA's Integral celebrates 1000 days in orbit. The neutron star, called IGR J16283-4838, is an...

Here come the X-rays, on cue. Scientists studying the Deep Impact collision using NASA's Swift satellite report that comet Tempel 1 is getting brighter and brighter in X-ray light with each passing day.The X-rays provide a direct measurement of how much material was kicked up in the impact. This is because the X-rays are created by the newly liberated material lifted into the comet's thin atmosphere and illuminated by the high-energy solar wind from the Sun. The more material liberated, the...

Observations of a cosmic explosion detected on Feb. 15 by two NASA satellites have thrown into doubt one popular explanation for such explosions and have also seriously weakened the argument for yet another, according to University of Chicago astrophysicist Don Lamb. But solving the mystery any time soon may be forestalled by plans to shut down one of the satellites in September. The explosion in question is a powerful burst of X-rays called an X-ray flash that was observed by NASA's Swift...

Minneapolis, Minn. -- Astronomers have uncovered tantalizing insights into the origin of short gamma-ray bursts "“ mysterious, split-second high-energy flashes that have eluded detailed study until now. Unlike their long-duration cousins, which are known to arise when massive young stars die, short bursts are thought to occur when old, dense neutron stars collide. New evidence supports this distinct progenitor population, heralding the opening of a new chapter in the study of nature's most...

Type Ic supernovae, or hypernovae, may be source of powerful burstsBerkeley -- Observations by two of the world's largest telescopes provide strong evidence that a peculiar type of exploding star may be the origin of elusive gamma-ray bursts that have puzzled scientists for more than 30 years. A team of astronomers from Italy, Japan, Germany and the United States, including the University of California, Berkeley, conclude from observations with the Keck and Subaru telescopes in Hawaii that...

Cambridge, MA -- Reporting in the May 12th issue of Nature, astronomers announced that they have penetrated the heart of the universe's most powerful explosion - a gamma-ray burst (GRB). Using the PAIRITEL (Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope) robotic telescope on Mt. Hopkins, Arizona, they detected a flash of infrared light accompanying the burst of high-energy radiation that signaled the death of a star roughly fifteen times more massive than the Sun. "This is the first time...

GREENBELT, Md. (AP) -- The birth of a black hole has been captured for the first time, a NASA scientist said Monday. NASA's Swift orbiting observatory detected the gamma ray burst of the collision between two dense neutron stars about early Monday and pointed its visible light and X-ray telescopes at the collision about a minute later, said Neil Gehrels, lead scientist for the Swift mission. "The birth cry of a black hole is one way people like to put it," Gehrels said, adding the...