Glimpse of gamma-ray burst galaxy sheds light on star births, deaths

This galaxy, shown at the top, is actively forming stars in numerous gas clouds. The center image shows a star-forming area in one of the arms. The bottom image shows the gamma-ray burst found within the area. Click on the center and bottom insets to zoom in to larger size images

June 30, 2000
Web posted at: 4:15 p.m. EDT (2015 GMT)

From staff reports

(CNN) -- The first high-resolution images of a galaxy in which a gamma-ray burst took place reveal that the intense radiation explosion happened in a region where stars are forming, European astronomers said.

Gamma-ray bursts are so powerful that they could serve as direct indicators of star formation taking place at the other end of the universe, said University of Copenhagen researcher Jens Hjorth.

"This has very interesting cosmological implications," he said in a statement this week.

The pictures, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, also provide evidence linking gamma-ray bursts to violent cosmic events like supernovas.

A team of astronomers looking at Hubble images discovered this month that a gamma-ray burst and subsequent supernova occurred in an active star-forming region in one of the galaxy's spiral arms.

The unusual gamma-ray burst was much closer -- in a galaxy only 125 million light years away -- than any other for which a distance has been determined. One day after the burst on April 25, 1998, an unusually bright supernova took place in the exact same location.

Explanations for gamma-ray bursts have eluded scientists. Different theories range from colliding neutron stars to collapsing massive stars, so-called hypernovae. Most astronomers think that this gamma-ray burst and the following supernova arose from the same source.

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