[escepticos] RV: HUBBLE VIEWS / RECORD-BREAKING EXPLOSION

["EZS" <diotalle@...>]

-----Mensaje original-----
De: Cheryl Gundy <gundy en stsci.edu>
Para: pio en stsci.edu <pio en stsci.edu>
Fecha: viernes 12 de marzo de 1999 2:23 AM
Asunto: HUBBLE VIEWS HOME GALAXY OF RECORD-BREAKING EXPLOSION (STScI-PRC99-09)


>EMBARGOED UNTIL:  9:00 A.M. (EST) March 11, 1999
>
>PHOTO NO.:  STScI-PRC99-09
>
>
>HUBBLE VIEWS HOME GALAXY OF RECORD-BREAKING EXPLOSION
>
>
>NASA Hubble Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph views of the rapidly
>fading visible-light fireball from the most powerful cosmic explosion
>recorded to date. For a brief moment the light from the blast was equal
>to the radiance of 100 million billion stars. The initial explosion
>began as an intense burst of gamma-rays which happened on Jan. 23, 1999.


Joder !!!: ...«radiance of 100 million billion stars»...

>[Left - Wide View] 
>The blast had already faded to one four-millionth of its original
>brightness when Hubble made observations on February 8 and 9. Space
>Telescope captured the fading fireball embedded in a galaxy located 2/3
>of the way to the horizon of the observable universe.
>
>
>[Right - Close-up View]
>Hubble?s resolution shows the galaxy is not the classic spiral or
>elliptical shape. It appears as finger-like filaments extending above
>the bright white blob of the fireball.  The galaxy might be distorted by
>a collision with another galaxy. This would induce rapid starbirth as
>gas clouds were heated and compressed, precipitating millions of newborn
>stars.
>
>The presence of this so-called starburst activity is strongly supported
>by Hubble and Keck telescope images that show the host galaxy is
>exceptionally blue. This means it contains a large number of blue
>newborn stars. 
>
>Space Telescope?s observations further support the idea that these
>mysterious powerful explosions happen where vigorous star formation
>takes place. Gamma-ray bursts may be created by the mergers of a pair of
>neutron stars or black holes, or a hypernova, a theorized type of
>exceptionally violent exploding star.


Si, si, tiene que ser algo muuy gordo. estrellas de neutrones o agujeros pero
que muy gordos... pero, ¿que es eso de «hypernova»?, ¿en que se diferencia
de una supernova?.

>Gamma-ray bursts go off at about one per day. The armada of telescopes
>now looking for them is allowing astronomers to learn more details of
>the explosion to refine models for explaining these mysterious events.
>
>Credit: Andrew Fruchter (STScI) and NASA
>
>NOTE TO EDITORS:  Image files and photo caption are available on the
>Internet at:
>http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/09 or via links in
>http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/latest.html and
>http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pictures.html
>
>Higher resolution digital versions of (300 dpi JPEG and TIFF) of the
>release photo are available at:
>http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1999/09/extra-photos.html
>
>STScI press releases and other information are available automatically
>by sending an Internet electronic mail message to
>pio-request en stsci.edu.  In the body of the message (not the subject
>line) users should type the word "subscribe" (don't use quotes).  The
>system will respond with a confirmation of the subscription, and users
>will receive new press releases as they are issued.   To unsubscribe,
>send mail to pio-request en stsci.edu. Leave the subject line blank, and
>type "unsubscribe" (don't use quotes) in the body of the message.
>
>
>***************************
>
>ASTROFILE FACT SHEET:
>
>FOLLOWING THE TRAIL OF A GAMMA-RAY BURST
>
>Chasing down a gamma-ray burst hasn?t been easy. Though astronomers have
>known about these powerful cosmic explosions for more than 20 years
>they?ve always been elusive because they happen with no warning,
>typically last for a few seconds, and can come from any region of the
>sky. Within only the past couple years astronomers have found that
>gamma-ray bursts are extremely far away, and so are caused by tremendous
>explosions. Astronomers do not fully understand the underlying mechanism
>behind the explosion.
>
>Astronomers, however, finally got their big break on Jan. 23, 1999.
>Using orbiting observatories and ground-based telescopes, astronomers
>from all over the world tracked the visible glow of a gamma-ray burst
>while it was still emitting high-energy radiation. They discovered that
>this burst was the most energetic eruption ever recorded, equal to the
>radiance of one billion galaxies. Here?s how astronomers made their
>catch:
>
>During the early morning of Jan. 23, the gamma-ray-burst detectors of
>the Burst and Transient Source Experiment (BATSE) onboard NASA's
>orbiting Compton Gamma Ray Observatory detect the beginning of a bright
>gamma-ray burst.
>
>BATSE?s computers determine a rough location and radio the position to
>the Gamma Ray Burst Coordinates Network (GCN), based at NASA's Goddard
>Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD. The GCN immediately forwards the
>position to astronomers at ground-based observatories throughout the
>world.
>
>Just 22 seconds later the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment
>(ROTSE) in Los Alamos, NM, operated by a team led by Dr. Carl Akerlof of
>the University of Michigan, takes pictures of the patch of sky where the
>burst was detected. The first picture reveals a brightening new star
>within the region where the explosion was reported.
>
>Five seconds later the burst achieves peak brightness, reaching 9th
>magnitude, about 16 times fainter than the human eye can see, but easily
>visible in an amateur telescope.
>
>Instruments aboard the Italian-Dutch BeppoSAX satellite also swing into
>action, obtaining a much more accurate position for the burst within a
>few hours of its onset. The ROTSE team uses this more precise location
>information to pinpoint the burst in their images.
>
>Within three hours of the gamma-ray burst, a team of astronomers led by
>Dr. Stephan Odewahn and Professors Shri Kulkarni and George Djorgovski
>of the California Institute of Technology use the 60-inch Mt. Palomar
>telescope to find a fading visible counterpart to this burst.
>
>On Jan. 24, a joint team led by Dr. D. Kelson of the Carnegie
>Institution of Washington, use the Keck II 10-meter telescope located at
>Mauna Kea, HI, to measure the distance to the burst?s host galaxy, about
>nine billion light-years away.
>
>On Feb. 8 and 9, astronomers put the NASA Hubble Space Telescope on the
>trail of the burst. The Hubble telescope captures the fading fireball
>embedded in a galaxy, even though the burst has dimmed to more than
>one four-millionth of its original brightness.


=========================================================

bye...

Eduardo Zotes Sarmiento
C.G: Sociedad para el Desarrollo de la Actitud Cientifica
SDAC web: http://web.jet.es/diotalle/index.htm
Club del Ensayo: http://web.jet.es/diotalle/cde/index.html
Galeria Azul: http://web.jet.es/diotalle/azul/index.html
email: < diotalle en jet.es >