These images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal a new type of stellar explosion produced from the merger of two compact objects.
Hubble spotted the outburst while looking at the aftermath of a short- duration gamma-ray burst, a mysterious flash of intense high-energy radiation that appears from random directions in space. Short-duration blasts last at most a few seconds. They sometimes, however, produce faint afterglows in visible and near-infrared light that continue for several hours or days and help astronomers pinpoint the exact location of the burst.
In the image at left, the galaxy in the center produced the gamma-ray burst, designated GRB 130603B. The galaxy, cataloged as SDS J112848.22+170418.5, resides almost 4 billion light-years away. A probe of the galaxy with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 on June 13, 2013, revealed a glow in near-infrared light at the source of the gamma-ray burst, shown in the image at top, right. When Hubble observed the same location on July 3, the source had faded, shown in the image at below, right. The fading glow provided key evidence that it was the decaying fireball of a new type of stellar blast called a kilonova.
Kilonovas are about 1,000 times brighter than a nova, which is caused by the eruption of a white dwarf. But they are 1/10th to 1/100th the brightness of a typical supernova, the self-detonation of a massive star.
Credits
NASA, ESA, N. Tanvir (University of Leicester), A. Fruchter (STScI), and A. Levan (University of Warwick)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | GRB 130603B, SDS J112848.22+170418.5 |
| Object Description | Gamma-ray Burst in Distant Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 11h 28m 48.16s |
| Dec. Position | 17° 4' 18.19" |
| Constellation | Leo |
| Distance | 4 billion light-years (1.2 billion parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The image was created from Hubble data from proposal : N. Tanvir (University of Leicester), J. Hjorth (University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute), A. Levan (University of Warwick), K. Wiersema (University of Leicester), and A. Fruchter (STScI). The science team includes: N. Tanvir (University of Leicester), A. Levan (University of Warwick), A. Fruchter (STScI), J. Hjorth (University of Copenhagen, Niels Bohr Institute), R. Hounsell (STScI), K. Wiersema (University of Leicester), and R. Tunnicliffe (University of Warwick). |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC and HST>WFC3/IR |
| Exposure Dates | June 12-13 and July 3, 2013 - October, 2010 |
| Filters | ACS/WFC: F606W (V) WFC3/IR: F160W (H) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | This image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by the ACS/WFC and WFC3/IR instruments. Several filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue/cyan: F606W (V) Orange: F160W (H) |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
