Abstract
The discovery of afterglows associated with γ-ray bursts at X-ray1, optical2 and radio3 wavelengths and the measurement of the redshifts of some of these events4,5 has established that γ-ray bursts lie at extreme distances, making them the most powerful photon-emitters known in the Universe. Here we report the discovery of transient optical emission in the error box of the γ-ray burst GRB980425, the light curve of which was very different from that of previous optical afterglows associated with γ-ray bursts. The optical transient is located in a spiral arm of the galaxy ESO184-G82, which has a redshift velocity of only 2,550 km s−1 (ref. 6). Its optical spectrum and location indicate that it is a very luminous supernova7, which has been identified as SN1998bw. If this supernova and GRB980425 are indeed associated, the energy radiated in γ-rays is at least four orders of magnitude less than in other γ-ray bursts, although its appearance was otherwise unremarkable: this indicates that very different mechanisms can give rise to γ-ray bursts. But independent of this association, the supernova is itself unusual, exhibiting an unusual light curve at radio wavelengths that requires that the gas emitting the radio photons be expanding relativistically8,9.
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Acknowledgements
This work is based partly on observations made by the MACHO Project with the 50-inch telescope at the ANU's Mt Stromlo Observatory (ANUMSO), by H. Jerjen with the 40-inch telescope at the ANU's Siding Spring Observatory, and on observations made at the European Southern Observatory, La Silla, Chile. We thank the RAPT Group of amateur astronomers (E. Pozza, A. Brakel, B. Crooke, S. McKeown, G. Wyper, K. Ward, D. Baines, P. Purcell, T. Leach, J. Howard, D. McDowell, M. McDonald, A. Salmon and A. Gurtierrez) for providing images from the 30-inch telescope at ANUMSO, and the SuperCOSMOS team for making a scan of an SERC Survey Plate taken with the UKST. J.v.P., C.K., M.K. and K.H. were supported by NASA.
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Galama, T., Vreeswijk, P., van Paradijs, J. et al. An unusual supernova in the error box of the γ-ray burst of 25 April 1998. Nature 395, 670–672 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/27150
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/27150
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