Jacques van Oene
January 21st 05, 07:41 PM
Gretchen Cook-Anderson
Headquarters, Washington Jan. 21, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-0836)
Nancy Neal-Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-0039)
RELEASE: 05-019
SWIFT MISSION IMAGES THE BIRTH OF A BLACK HOLE
The NASA-led Swift mission has detected and imaged its first gamma-ray
burst, likely the birth cry of a brand new black hole.
The bright and long burst occurred on January 17. It was in the midst of
exploding, as Swift autonomously turned to focus in less than 200 seconds.
The
satellite was fast enough to capture an image of the event with its X-Ray
Telescope (XRT), while gamma rays were still being detected with the Burst
Alert
Telescope (BAT).
"This is the first time an X-ray telescope has imaged a gamma-ray burst,
while it
was bursting," said Dr. Neil Gehrels, Swift's Principal Investigator at
NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Most bursts are gone in about
10
seconds, and few last upwards of a minute. Previous X-ray images have
captured
the burst afterglow, not the burst itself."
"This is the one that didn't get away," said Prof. John Nousek, Swift's
Mission
Operations Director at Penn State University, State College, Pa. "And this
is
what Swift was built to do: to detect these fleeting gamma-ray bursts and
focus
its telescopes on them autonomously within about a minute. The most exciting
thing is this mission is just revving up."
Swift has three main instruments. The BAT detects bursts and initiates the
autonomous slewing to bring the XRT and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope
(UVOT)
within focus of the burst. In December the BAT started detecting bursts,
including a remarkable triple detection on December 19. Today's announcement
marks the first BAT detection autonomously followed by XRT detection,
demonstrating the satellite is swiftly slewing as planned. The UVOT is still
being tested, and it was not collecting data when the burst was detected.
Scientists will need several weeks to fully understand this burst,
GRB050117, so
named for the date of detection. Telescopes in orbit and on Earth will turn
to
the precise burst location provided by Swift to observe the burst afterglow
and
the region surrounding the burst.
"We are frantically analyzing the XRT data to understand the X-ray emission
seen
during the initial explosion and the very early afterglow," said Dr. David
Burrows, the XRT lead at Penn State. "This is a whole new ballgame. No one
has
ever imaged X-rays during the transition of a gamma-ray burst from the
brilliant
flash to the fading embers."
When the UVOT is fully operational, both the XRT and UVOT will provide an
in-
depth observation of the gamma-ray burst and its afterglow. The burst is
gone in
a flash, but scientists can study the afterglow to learn about what caused
the
burst, much like a detective hunts for clues at a crime scene.
The origin of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery. At least some appear to
originate in massive star explosions. Others might be the result of merging
black
holes or neutron stars. Any of these scenarios likely will result in the
formation of a new black hole.
Several of these bursts occur daily somewhere in the visible universe. No
prompt
X-ray emission (coincident with the gamma-ray burst) has been previously
imaged,
because it usually takes hours to turn an X-ray telescope towards a burst.
Scientists expect Swift to be fully operational by February 1.
Swift, still in its checkout phase, is an international collaboration
launched on
November 20, 2004. It is a NASA mission in partnership with the Italian
Space
Agency and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, United
Kingdom.
The spacecraft was built in collaboration with national laboratories,
universities and international partners, including Penn State University;
Los
Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Sonoma State University, Rohnert
Park,
Calif.; Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Dorking, Surrey, England; the
University of Leicester, England; Brera Observatory in Milan; and ASI
Science
Data Center in Frascati, Italy.
For more information about Swift on the Web, visit:
http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info
Headquarters, Washington Jan. 21, 2005
(Phone: 202/358-0836)
Nancy Neal-Jones
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
(Phone: 301/286-0039)
RELEASE: 05-019
SWIFT MISSION IMAGES THE BIRTH OF A BLACK HOLE
The NASA-led Swift mission has detected and imaged its first gamma-ray
burst, likely the birth cry of a brand new black hole.
The bright and long burst occurred on January 17. It was in the midst of
exploding, as Swift autonomously turned to focus in less than 200 seconds.
The
satellite was fast enough to capture an image of the event with its X-Ray
Telescope (XRT), while gamma rays were still being detected with the Burst
Alert
Telescope (BAT).
"This is the first time an X-ray telescope has imaged a gamma-ray burst,
while it
was bursting," said Dr. Neil Gehrels, Swift's Principal Investigator at
NASA's
Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. "Most bursts are gone in about
10
seconds, and few last upwards of a minute. Previous X-ray images have
captured
the burst afterglow, not the burst itself."
"This is the one that didn't get away," said Prof. John Nousek, Swift's
Mission
Operations Director at Penn State University, State College, Pa. "And this
is
what Swift was built to do: to detect these fleeting gamma-ray bursts and
focus
its telescopes on them autonomously within about a minute. The most exciting
thing is this mission is just revving up."
Swift has three main instruments. The BAT detects bursts and initiates the
autonomous slewing to bring the XRT and the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope
(UVOT)
within focus of the burst. In December the BAT started detecting bursts,
including a remarkable triple detection on December 19. Today's announcement
marks the first BAT detection autonomously followed by XRT detection,
demonstrating the satellite is swiftly slewing as planned. The UVOT is still
being tested, and it was not collecting data when the burst was detected.
Scientists will need several weeks to fully understand this burst,
GRB050117, so
named for the date of detection. Telescopes in orbit and on Earth will turn
to
the precise burst location provided by Swift to observe the burst afterglow
and
the region surrounding the burst.
"We are frantically analyzing the XRT data to understand the X-ray emission
seen
during the initial explosion and the very early afterglow," said Dr. David
Burrows, the XRT lead at Penn State. "This is a whole new ballgame. No one
has
ever imaged X-rays during the transition of a gamma-ray burst from the
brilliant
flash to the fading embers."
When the UVOT is fully operational, both the XRT and UVOT will provide an
in-
depth observation of the gamma-ray burst and its afterglow. The burst is
gone in
a flash, but scientists can study the afterglow to learn about what caused
the
burst, much like a detective hunts for clues at a crime scene.
The origin of gamma-ray bursts remains a mystery. At least some appear to
originate in massive star explosions. Others might be the result of merging
black
holes or neutron stars. Any of these scenarios likely will result in the
formation of a new black hole.
Several of these bursts occur daily somewhere in the visible universe. No
prompt
X-ray emission (coincident with the gamma-ray burst) has been previously
imaged,
because it usually takes hours to turn an X-ray telescope towards a burst.
Scientists expect Swift to be fully operational by February 1.
Swift, still in its checkout phase, is an international collaboration
launched on
November 20, 2004. It is a NASA mission in partnership with the Italian
Space
Agency and the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, United
Kingdom.
The spacecraft was built in collaboration with national laboratories,
universities and international partners, including Penn State University;
Los
Alamos National Laboratory, New Mexico; Sonoma State University, Rohnert
Park,
Calif.; Mullard Space Science Laboratory in Dorking, Surrey, England; the
University of Leicester, England; Brera Observatory in Milan; and ASI
Science
Data Center in Frascati, Italy.
For more information about Swift on the Web, visit:
http://swift.gsfc.nasa.gov
-end-
--
--------------
Jacques :-)
www.spacepatches.info