Gamma Ray Encounter
I mentioned in my last post that there was a new gamma-ray burst (GRB) and that I was going to slew over to check it out. Well I’m glad I did! It turns out that I was able to get an image of the optical afterglow. GRB’s are thought to be related to supernovae, where a star blows up in a catastrophic end to its life. This star was in a galaxy at a redshift of z=1.49, meaning it is roughly 3500 Mpc or 11 billion light years away. (Thanks Dr. Cabanela!) That means the light you see in the picture above left on its journey to the Starhouse Observatory when the universe was 15% of its current age!
My observations were shared with the astronomical community via GCN 4977. GRB 060418A is pictured above from my images. It was very low on the horizon and was a very weak detection. Still, those photons were traveling for billions of years, lucky I was there to catch them!
Tuesday, April 18, 2006