Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Gamma-ray bursts

Light from darkness

Nature volume 419, pages 259–261 (2002)Cite this article

Telescopes must respond quickly to pinpoint transient gamma-ray bursts and pick up their afterglow. Mysterious 'dark' bursts seemed to produce no light at optical wavelengths, but a faint signal has now been detected.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are intense flashes of radiation that originate in the furthest reaches of the Universe. The bursts are expected to be followed by an afterglow of radiation at optical wavelengths. But for many GRBs (around 60% of the total sample of less than 40 bursts that have now been followed up), this afterglow seems to be missing. Hence, they have become known as 'dark' bursts. In a paper to appear in the Astrophysical Journal, Berger et al.1 report data from an armada of telescopes that reveal a faint optical afterglow from a GRB that would otherwise have been classed as 'dark'. Their observations suggest that the seeming lack of optical emission from dark bursts is in fact a result of insufficiently prompt and sensitive observations.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Berger, E. et al. Astrophys. J. (in the press); Preprint astro-ph/ 0207320, http://arXiv.org

  2. Waxman, E., Kulkarni, S. & Frail, D. Astrophys. J. 497, 288–293 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Hurley, K. et al. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 122, 497–501 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  4. http://www.swift.psu.edu

  5. http://www-glast.sonoma.edu

  6. Grindlay, J. et al. in Gamma-Ray Burst and Afterglow Astronomy 2001: A Workshop Celebrating the First Year of the HETE Mission (ed. Ricker, G.) (Am. Inst. Phys., in the press).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Space Science Department, SD50, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, 35812, Alabama, USA

    Gerald J. Fishman

Authors
  1. Gerald J. Fishman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Gerald J. Fishman.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Fishman, G. Light from darkness. Nature 419, 259–261 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/419259a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/419259a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing