Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Bright Gamma Ray Burst

Last night there was a particularly bright gamma ray burst (080319B) located in Bootes that was perfectly located for a number of observatories to go after. An camera called "Pi of the Sky" caught the burst and estimated the peak visual brightness at magnitude 5.7, an amazing level for an object that, when spectra were taken of the fading remnant, is nearly 7.7 billion light years away, at a redshift of 0.937. In one of those coincidences there were 4, count them, 4 GRBs yesterday.
See an animation of the burst from Chile here.

I have a link to the field in the local copy of SDSS here.

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