A Long Gamma-Ray Burst -- And Multiple Teams Swung Into Action -- Chasing After "A Seed, Dropped By A Sky-Bird, In A Distant Wood..."

Lasting just over 200 seconds, this one required exceedingly swift sky-work, for the discovery.

A collaboration across the globe swung into action -- to pinpoint the source on the sky and track how its brightness changed ("like a seed dropped by a sky-bird, in a distant wood" -- and our understanding is changed. . . for good).

These observations in the gamma-ray, X-ray, optical, infrared, and radio showed that the optical/infrared counterpart was faint, evolved quickly, and rapidly became very red -- all the hallmarks of a kilonova. [Like a comet pulled from orbit. . . or a stream that meets a boulder. . . halfway through the wood. . . .] Here's the NASA run-down on it all:

. . .A team of scientists has used multiple space and ground-based telescopes, including. . . NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, and NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, to observe an exceptionally bright gamma-ray burst, GRB 230307A, and identify the neutron star merger that generated an explosion that created the burst. [The next-gen space 'scope] helped scientists detect the chemical element tellurium in the explosion’s aftermath. . . .

Other elements near tellurium on the periodic table -- like iodine, which is needed for much of life on Earth -- are also likely to be present among the kilonova’s ejected material. A kilonova is an explosion produced by a neutron star merging with either a black hole or with another neutron star. . . .

GRB 230307A is particularly remarkable. First detected by Fermi in March, it is the second brightest GRB observed in over 50 years of observations, about 1,000 times brighter than a typical gamma-ray burst that Fermi observes. It also lasted for 200 seconds, placing it firmly in the category of long duration gamma-ray bursts, despite its different origin.

“This burst is way into the long category. It’s not near the border. But it seems to be coming from a merging neutron star,” added Eric Burns, a co-author of the paper and member of the Fermi team at Louisiana State University. . . .

Now you know -- and like a hand-print on my heart. . . it captures LSU, too. . . grinning, ear to ear. . . 20 years on, with "Wicked", at this all-hallows time of year, here too.



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