An international team of astronomers has for the first time observed the
visible light from a short gamma-ray burst. Using the 1.5m Danish
telescope at La Silla (Chile), they showed that these short, intense
bursts of gamma-ray emission most likely originate from the violent
collision of two merging neutron stars. The same team has also used ESO's
Very Large Telescope to constrain the birthplace of the first ever short
burst whose position could be pinpointed with high precision, GRB 050509B.

Read the details and see the images in ESO Press Release 26/05 at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-re.../pr-26-05.html

And if you want to know why it started like in a James Bond movie, read
the full story at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-re...-26-05-p2.html


ESO Messenger no.121 (September 2005) is now available. Among the
highlights: Science with Extremely Large Telescopes; Deep Impact at ESO
Telescopes; Measuring Improved Distances to Nearby Galaxies: The Araucaria
Project; The zCOSMOS Redshift Survey, and much more. Go to
http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/pubs/messenger/ to access the 72 pages PDF file.

With kind regards,

The ESO Public Affairs Dept.

---------

Sue...

Wow! Fab! Zowieeeee!! I love gamma-ray bursts.

I wonder if they've got a redshift for it yet?

"sue jahn" suzysewnshow wrote in message
news

An international team of astronomers has for the first time observed the
visible light from a short gamma-ray burst. Using the 1.5m Danish
telescope at La Silla (Chile), they showed that these short, intense
bursts of gamma-ray emission most likely originate from the violent
collision of two merging neutron stars. The same team has also used ESO's
Very Large Telescope to constrain the birthplace of the first ever short
burst whose position could be pinpointed with high precision, GRB 050509B.

Read the details and see the images in ESO Press Release 26/05 at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-re.../pr-26-05.html

And if you want to know why it started like in a James Bond movie, read
the full story at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-re...-26-05-p2.html


ESO Messenger no.121 (September 2005) is now available. Among the
highlights: Science with Extremely Large Telescopes; Deep Impact at ESO
Telescopes; Measuring Improved Distances to Nearby Galaxies: The Araucaria
Project; The zCOSMOS Redshift Survey, and much more. Go to
http://www.eso.org/gen-fac/pubs/messenger/ to access the 72 pages PDF
file.

With kind regards,

The ESO Public Affairs Dept.

---------

Sue...
.................................................. ...................
To Sue,

For a simple explanation what causes a gamma ray burst, see the fourth of my
Selected Papers titled: 'Frames of Reference: Part Two'
under the subheading of: GAMMA-RAY BURSTERS.

See: http://www2.rideau.net/gaasbeek

Enjoy, Len.
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