A Hubble Space Telescope image of the fading fireball from one of the universe's most mysterious phenomena , a gamma-ray burst.
Though the visible component has faded to 1/500th its brightness (27.7 magnitude) from the time it was first discovered by ground based telescopes last March (The actual gamma-ray burst took place on February 28,) , Hubble continues to clearly see the fireball and discriminate a surrounding nebulosity (at 25th magnitude) which is considered a host galaxy.
The continued visibility of the burst, and the rate of its fading , support theories that the light from a gamma-ray burst is an expanding relativistic (moving near the speed of light) fireball, possibly produced by the collison of two dense objects, such as an orbiting pair of neutron stars.
If the burst happened nearby, within our own galaxy, the resulting fireball should have had only enough energy to propel it into space for a month. The fact that this fireball is still visible after six months means the explosion was truly titanic and, to match the observed brightness, must have happened at the vast distances of galaxies. The energy released in a burst, which can last from a fraction of a second to a few hundred seconds, is equal to all of the Sun's energy generated over its 10 billion year lifetime.
The false-color image was taken Sept 5 with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.
Credits
Andrew Fruchter (STScI), Elena Pian (ITSRE-CNR), and NASA| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | GRB 970228 |
| R.A. Position | 05h 1m 57.0s |
| Dec. Position | 11° 46' 23.99" |
| 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. |
