Latest GRB 970228 Stories

ESA's Integral gamma-ray observatory has provided results that will dramatically affect the search for physics beyond Einstein. It has shown that any underlying quantum "˜graininess' of space must be at much smaller scales than previously predicted. Einstein's General Theory of Relativity describes the properties of gravity and assumes that space is a smooth, continuous fabric. Yet quantum theory suggests that space should be grainy at the smallest scales, like sand on a beach.One of the...

The brilliant afterglow of a powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB) has enabled astronomers to probe the star-forming environment of a distant galaxy, resulting in the first detection of molecular gas in a GRB host galaxy. By analyzing the spectrum of light emitted in the GRB afterglow, the researchers are gleaning insights into an active stellar nursery in a galaxy so far away it appears as it was 10 billion years ago."This observation required a rare and exceptionally bright event to allow us...

Robotic Telescope Measures Speed of Material Ejected in Cosmic DeathUsing a robotic telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, astronomers have for the first time measured the velocity of the explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. The material is travelling at the extraordinary speed of more than 99.999% of the velocity of light, the maximum speed limit in the Universe."With the development of fast-slewing ground-based telescopes such as the 0.6-m REM telescope at ESO La Silla, we can now...

VLT Automatically Takes Detailed Spectra of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows Only Minutes After DiscoveryA time-series of high-resolution spectra in the optical and ultraviolet has twice been obtained just a few minutes after the detection of a gamma-ray bust explosion in a distant galaxy. The international team of astronomers responsible for these observations derived new conclusive evidence about the nature of the surroundings of these powerful explosions linked to the death of massive stars.At...

In a series of landmark observations gathered over a period of four months, NASA's Swift satellite has challenged some of astronomers' fundamental ideas about gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), which are among the most extreme events in our universe. GRBs are the explosive deaths of very massive stars, some of which eject jets that can release in a matter of seconds the same amount of energy that the sun will radiate over its 10-billion-year lifetime. When GRB jets slam into nearby interstellar gas,...

Almost 40 years have passed since top secret nuclear weapon warning satellites accidentally discovered bursts of high energy gamma rays coming from space. Although many thousands of gamma ray bursts (GRBs) have since been detected, the origin and nature of these bursts is still not well understood. One example of an unusual gamma ray burst occurred on 1 August 2005, when instruments on board the NASA-UK-Italy Swift spacecraft detected a bizarre GRB, which displayed unprecedented behaviour....

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...

PSU -- The NASA-led Swift mission has measured the distance to two gamma-ray bursts -- back to back, from opposite parts of the sky -- and both were from over nine billion light years away, unleashed billions of years before the Sun and Earth formed. These represent the mission's first direct distance, or redshift, measurements, its latest milestone since being launched in November 2004. The distances were attained with Swift's Ultraviolet/OpticalTelescope (UVOT). The Swift science team said...

PSU -- The Swift satellite's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) has seen first light, capturing an image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, long loved by amateur astronomers as the "perfect" face-on spiral galaxy. The UVOT now remains poised to observe its first gamma-ray burst. Swift is a NASA-led mission dedicated to the gamma-ray burst mystery. These random and fleeting explosions likely signal the birth of black holes. With the UVOT turned on, Swift now is fully operational. Swift's two...