2001 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
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Tape Title | Record ID |
Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| HETE-2 BEGINS TO CAPTURE GAMMA RAY BURSTS | G01-031 | 03/28/01 |
00:03:18 | The High-Energy Transient Explorer
(HETE-2) has begun to precisely locate one the most exotic and
powerful events in the universe - the gamma ray burst (GRB). HETE
caught two caught two gamma-rays bursts on March 25 and 26.
Surprisingly, the energy released in a single burst is equal to all
of the Sun's energy generated over its 10 billion year lifetime. Not
bad for a spacecraft that's not yet fully operational.
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TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): HETE Sees a Gamma
Ray Burst - Animation
- Gamma ray bursts are the greatest outpouring of energy
known outside the Big Bang. Scientists are not sure what causes these
mysterious events, but they have hypothesized that the huge fireballs
may be the result of colliding black holes or the explosive collapse
of ordinary stars. They occur without warning and typically last only
a few seconds before fading.
Courtesy: NASA
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| ITEM (2): HETE-2 Spacecraft
and Gamma Ray Burst ANIMATION - The primary goal of the HETE
mission is to quickly find the precise location of the GRB and to
distribute the location to other observatories around the world to
allow observations of the burst afterglow, which can linger for days
or weeks in X-ray and optical light. Scientists hope by studying the
afterglow of these mysterious events, they will be able to better
understand the origin of the violent events.
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| ITEM (3): A Satellite
Pinpoints a Burst - On December 14, 1997, the Italian/Dutch
BeppoSAX satellite serendipitously captured a gamma ray burst and was
able to provide coordinates to observatories around the world. These
images were captured by the W.M. Keck 10-meter telescope on Mauna
Kea, Hawaii. The image on the left shows the light afterglow of the
burst, obtained about two days after the burst and while it was still
relatively bright. The image on the right shows the field as seen
about two months later, after the burst afterglow had faded away,
revealing a faint galaxy at its position. When fully operational,
scientists expect HETE-2 to capture several gamma ray bursts per week.
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| ITEM (4): Electromagnetic
Spectrum Animation - - Gamma ray bursts, or GRBs are a
very-high-energy form of electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength
even shorter than that of an X-ray. A gamma ray is produced by
changes in atomic nuclei and are decay products of collisions between
cosmic rays and interstellar matter.
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