Editor's Summary
6 October 2005
Short gamma-ray bursts
Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are either 'long and soft', or 'short and hard'. The long-duration type leave a strong afterglow and have been extensively studied. So we have a good idea of what causes them: explosions of massive stars in distant star-forming galaxies. Short GRBs, with no strong afterglow, were harder to pin down. The Swift satellite, launched last November, is designed to study bursts as soon as they happen. Having shown its worth with long GRBs (reported in the 18 August issue of Nature), Swift has now bagged a short burst, GRB 050509B, precisely measured its location and detected the X-ray afterglow. Four papers this week report on this and another recent short burst. Now, over 20 years after they were first recognized, the likely origin of the short GRBs is revealed as a merger between neutron stars of a binary system and the instantaneous production of a black hole.
News and Views: Astrophysics: Short-burst sources
Measurements of the X-ray afterglow of long 
-ray bursts largely clarified the origin of these bright flashes of cosmic radiation. Their shorter-lived siblings are now beginning to divulge their secrets, too.
Luigi Piro
doi: 10.1038/437822a
Article: The afterglow of GRB 050709 and the nature of the short-hard 
-ray bursts
D. B. Fox, D. A. Frail, P. A. Price, S. R. Kulkarni, E. Berger, T. Piran, A. M. Soderberg, S. B. Cenko, P. B. Cameron, A. Gal-Yam, M. M. Kasliwal, D.-S. Moon, F. A. Harrison, E. Nakar, B. P. Schmidt, B. Penprase, R. A. Chevalier, P. Kumar, K. Roth, D. Watson, B. L. Lee, S. Shectman, M. M. Phillips, M. Roth, P. J. McCarthy, M. Rauch, L. Cowie, B. A. Peterson, J. Rich, N. Kawai, K. Aoki, G. Kosugi, T. Totani, H.-S. Park, A. MacFadyen and K. C. Hurley
doi: 10.1038/nature04189
Abstract | Full Text | PDF (328K)
Letter: A short -ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.225
N. Gehrels, C. L. Sarazin, P. T. O'Brien, B. Zhang, L. Barbier, S. D. Barthelmy, A. Blustin, D. N. Burrows, J. Cannizzo, J. R. Cummings, M. Goad, S. T. Holland, C. P. Hurkett, J. A. Kennea, A. Levan, C. B. Markwardt, K. O. Mason, P. Meszaros, M. Page, D. M. Palmer, E. Rol, T. Sakamoto, R. Willingale, L. Angelini, A. Beardmore, P. T. Boyd, A. Breeveld, S. Campana, M. M. Chester, G. Chincarini, L. R. Cominsky, G. Cusumano, M. de Pasquale, E. E. Fenimore, P. Giommi, C. Gronwall, D. Grupe, J. E. Hill, D. Hinshaw, J. Hjorth, D. Hullinger, K. C. Hurley, S. Klose, S. Kobayashi, C. Kouveliotou, H. A. Krimm, V. Mangano, F. E. Marshall, K. McGowan, A. Moretti, R. F. Mushotzky, K. Nakazawa, J. P. Norris, J. A. Nousek, J. P. Osborne, K. Page, A. M. Parsons, S. Patel, M. Perri, T. Poole, P. Romano, P. W. A. Roming, S. Rosen, G. Sato, P. Schady, A. P. Smale, J. Sollerman, R. Starling, M. Still, M. Suzuki, G. Tagliaferri, T. Takahashi, M. Tashiro, J. Tueller, A. A. Wells, N. E. White and R. A. M. J. Wijers
doi: 10.1038/nature04142
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (296K)
Letter: Discovery of the short 
-ray burst GRB 050709
J. S. Villasenor, D. Q. Lamb, G. R. Ricker, J.-L. Atteia, N. Kawai, N. Butler, Y. Nakagawa, J. G. Jernigan, M. Boer, G. B. Crew, T. Q. Donaghy, J. Doty, E. E. Fenimore, M. Galassi, C. Graziani, K. Hurley, A. Levine, F. Martel, M. Matsuoka, J.-F. Olive, G. Prigozhin, T. Sakamoto, Y. Shirasaki, M. Suzuki, T. Tamagawa, R. Vanderspek, S. E. Woosley, A. Yoshida, J. Braga, R. Manchanda, G. Pizzichini, K. Takagishi and M. Yamauchi
doi: 10.1038/nature04213
First paragraph | Full Text | PDF (319K)
Letter: The optical afterglow of the short -ray burst GRB 050709
Jens Hjorth, Darach Watson, Johan P. U. Fynbo, Paul A. Price, Brian L. Jensen, Uffe G. Jørgensen, Daniel Kubas, Javier Gorosabel, Páll Jakobsson, Jesper Sollerman, Kristian Pedersen and Chryssa Kouveliotou
doi: 10.1038/nature04174