2002 SPACE SCIENCE VIDEOTAPES |
| |
Tape Title | Record ID | Date Produced | TRT: |
Synopsis |
| RARE GAMMA RAY BURST CAPTURED
| G02-078 | 10/08/02 | 00:02:53 | Friday marked the rapid sighting of the most energetic type of explosion in the Universe - a gamma ray burst - thanks to NASA's High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE) satellite. Upon spotting the burst of energy that astronomers have yet to adequately explain, HETE sent a message within seconds to astronomers worldwide so they could point their respective telescopes and make observations; the first was made just nine minutes after the explosion.
|
TAPE CONTENTS: |
| ITEM (1): The Gamma Ray Burst
- Friday's gamma ray burst (named GRB021004) was detected at 8:06 am EDT on Oct. 4 by the detectors onboard HETE. Within 11 seconds it sent out a message worldwide of the burst detection and a location 38 seconds later. Within nine minutes scientists at the California Institute of Technology made observations followed by groups in Kyoto, Japan; England and other countries. The explosion, a flash of gamma rays (the most energetic form of light) lasted approximately 100 seconds but the afterglow may linger in low-energy light forms for days or weeks.
In this before-and-after sequence, the first image shows what that region of the sky looked like before the burst. The second image shows the GRB afterglow, marked as "OT" for optical transient (but taken with a different telescope.). Following is an animation of a gamma ray burst.
Courtesy: NASA / CALTECH
|
| ITEM (2): HETE Spacecraft - The High Energy Transient Explorer (HETE) was launched in 2000 to detect the oft-occurring but hard-to-track GRBs and relay their locations within seconds to a worldwide network of radio, optical and X-rays telescopes. Gamma ray bursts contain the energy of a billion trillion Suns, yet occur randomly and disappear quickly; it's the afterglow of the GRB that contains information about the burst's origin.
Courtesy: NASA
|
Space Science Gallery