Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Starr, D. L
• Hornstein, S
• Barthelmy, S
• Konopacky, Q
• Palmer, D
• Skrutskie, M
• Chaffee, F
• Bloom, J. S
• Fenimore, E. E
• Duchêne, G
• Kassis, M
• Cummings, J. R
• Stapelfeldt, K
• Parsons, A
• Hullinger, D
• Blake, C. H
• Ghez, A
• Hurley, K
• McLean, K
• Campbell, R
• Krimm, H. A
• Prochaska, J. X
• Tueller, J
• Szentgyorgyi, A
• McCabe, C
• Gehrels, N
• Falco, E. E
• Markwardt, C. B

Titel

An infrared flash contemporaneous with the γ-rays of GRB 041219a

Ist Teil von

• Nature, 2005-05, Vol.435 (7039), p.181-184

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing

Erscheinungsjahr

2005

Quelle

EBSCOhost Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The explosion that results in a cosmic γ-ray burst (GRB) is thought to produce emission from two physical processes: the central engine gives rise to the high-energy emission of the burst through internal shocking, and the subsequent interaction of the flow with the external environment produces long-wavelength afterglows. Although observations of afterglows continue to refine our understanding of GRB progenitors and relativistic shocks, γ-ray observations alone have not yielded a clear picture of the origin of the prompt emission nor details of the central engine. Only one concurrent visible-light transient has been found and it was associated with emission from an external shock. Here we report the discovery of infrared emission contemporaneous with a GRB, beginning 7.2 minutes after the onset of GRB 041219a (ref. 8). We acquired 21 images during the active phase of the burst, yielding early multi-colour observations. Our analysis of the initial infrared pulse suggests an origin consistent with internal shocks.