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.

Astronomy

Glowing embers

Nature volume 422, pages 268–269 (2003)Cite this article

The combined efforts of telescopes around the world have tracked the development of the 'afterglow' that follows a γ-ray burst, from only minutes after the burst until weeks later.

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are short, intense flashes of γ-rays that arrive from random directions in the sky. They are followed by an 'afterglow' — decaying signals at longer wavelengths that may last weeks, months or even years. Until now, afterglows had only been picked up some time after the GRB, but, on page 284 of this issue, Fox et al.1 report the continuous detection of an optical afterglow, beginning at almost the same instant as the burst itself.

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

Figure 1: The internal–external shocks model.

References

  1. Fox, D. W. et al. Nature 422, 284–286 (2003).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Akerlof, C. Nature 398, 400–402 (1999).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. http://space.mit.edu/HETE/Welcome.html

  4. Sari, R. & Piran, T. Astrophys. J. 520, 641–649 (1999).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Kobayashi, S. & Zhang, B. Astrophys. J. 582, L75–L78 (2003).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lazzati, D. et al. Astron. Astrophys. 396, L5–L9 (2002).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  7. Nakar, E., Piran, T. & Granot, J. New Astron. (in the press).

  8. Heyl, J. & Perna, R. Astrophys. J. (in the press); Preprint astro-ph/0211256 at <http://arXiv.org> (2002).

  9. Nakar, E. & Piran, T. Preprint astro-ph/0303156 at <http://arXiv.org> (2003).

  10. Rees, M. J. & Mézáros, P. Astrophys. J. 496, L1–L4 (1998).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Kumar, P. & Piran, T. Astrophys. J. 535, 152–157 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Racah Institute for Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel

    Tsvi Piran

Authors
  1. Tsvi Piran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tsvi Piran.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Piran, T. Glowing embers. Nature 422, 268–269 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/422268a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/422268a

This article is cited by

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