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Gehrels N, Sarazin CL, O'Brien PT, Zhang B, Barbier L, Barthelmy SD, Blustin A, Burrows DN, Cannizzo J, Cummings JR, Goad M, Holland ST, Hurkett CP, Kennea JA, Levan A, Markwardt CB, Mason KO, Meszaros P, Page M, Palmer DM, Rol E, Sakamoto T, Willingale R, Angelini L, Beardmore A, Boyd PT, Breeveld A, Campana S, Chester MM, Chincarini G, Cominsky LR, Cusumano G, de Pasquale M, Fenimore EE, Giommi P, Gronwall C, Grupe D, Hill JE, Hinshaw D, Hjorth J, Hullinger D, Hurley KC, Klose S, Kobayashi S, Kouveliotou C, Krimm HA, Mangano V, Marshall FE, McGowan K, Moretti A, Mushotzky RF, Nakazawa K, Norris JP, Nousek JA, Osborne JP, Page K, Parsons AM, Patel S, Perri M, Poole T, Romano P, Roming PWA, Rosen S, Sato G, Schady P, Smale AP, Sollerman J, Starling R, Still M, Suzuki M, Tagliaferri G, Takahashi T, Tashiro M, Tueller J, Wells AA, White NE, Wijers RAMJ. A short γ-ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.225. Nature 2005; 437:851-4. [PMID: 16208363 DOI: 10.1038/nature04142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 471] [Impact Index Per Article: 24.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2005] [Accepted: 08/10/2005] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) come in two classes: long (> 2 s), soft-spectrum bursts and short, hard events. Most progress has been made on understanding the long GRBs, which are typically observed at high redshift (z approximately 1) and found in subluminous star-forming host galaxies. They are likely to be produced in core-collapse explosions of massive stars. In contrast, no short GRB had been accurately (< 10'') and rapidly (minutes) located. Here we report the detection of the X-ray afterglow from--and the localization of--the short burst GRB 050509B. Its position on the sky is near a luminous, non-star-forming elliptical galaxy at a redshift of 0.225, which is the location one would expect if the origin of this GRB is through the merger of neutron-star or black-hole binaries. The X-ray afterglow was weak and faded below the detection limit within a few hours; no optical afterglow was detected to stringent limits, explaining the past difficulty in localizing short GRBs.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Gehrels
- NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771, USA
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