It’s now solid: February’s supernova explosion, the first witnessed directly, was foreshadowed by a gamma ray burst
NASA’s gamma-ray-detecting SWIFT satellite was ready when a burst of the high-energy waves arrived on Feb. 18. Immediately, word went out to observatories on the ground and in space to slew to the coordinates. As a result, astronomers have 40 minutes of continuous recordings of a supernova unfolding in several wavelengths in “real time.” Of course, the star actually exploded 440 million years ago. That 40 minutes of explosion lasted much longer than the usual supernova burst, which is said to fade within seconds. Lots of newspapers covered the event in late February or early March, and nearly all ignored today’s scientific results in four papers in Nature.
A key finding: Gamma ray bursts really are linked to supernovae, both now clearly seen to stem from the same cause. Astrophysicists had only speculated that gamma ray bursts signaled a coming supernova. Now the link looks strong.
The Times of London’s Mark Henderson; The Brisbane, Australia, Courier Mail’s John Von Radowitz; Wired’s Kristen Philipkoski .
