9 March 2011

Supernova - GRB connection observed

Gamma Ray Bursts have now been observed in direct connection with an exploding giant star - a supernova. Researchers at DARK are among those who have studied the rare event. The results have been published in the scientific journal, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Picture of the super novaAn international team of researchers made the discovery using NASA's Swift satellite, which was first used to find the exploding star in the universe. They then observed the phenomenon from the European Very Large Telescopes, VLT in Chile, where using the special X-shooter instrument they could observe the object's light spectrum all the way from the ultraviolet to near the infrared at the same time.