CXC: GRB 140903A: Chandra Finds Evidence for Violent Stellar Merger

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CXC: GRB 140903A: Chandra Finds Evidence for Violent Stellar Merger

Post by bystander » Thu Jul 14, 2016 6:06 pm

GRB 140903A: Chandra Finds Evidence for Violent Stellar Merger
NASA | MSFC | SAO | Chandra X-ray Observatory | 2016 July 14
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... On September 3, 2014, NASA's Swift observatory picked up a GRB - dubbed GRB 140903A due to the date it was detected. Scientists used optical observations with the Gemini Observatory telescope in Hawaii to determine that GRB 140903A was located in a galaxy about 3.9 billion light years away, relatively nearby for a GRB.

The large panel in the graphic is an illustration showing the aftermath of a neutron star merger, including the generation of a GRB. In the center is a compact object - either a black hole or a massive neutron star - and in red is a disk of material left over from the merger, containing material falling towards the compact object. Energy from this infalling material drives the GRB jet shown in yellow. In orange is a wind of particles blowing away from the disk and in blue is material ejected from the compact object and expanding at very high speeds of about one tenth the speed of light.

The image on the left of the two smaller panels shows an optical view from the Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) with GRB 140903A in the middle of the square and a close-up X-ray view from Chandra on the right. The bright star in the optical image is unrelated to the GRB. ...

An achromatic break in the afterglow of the short GRB 140903A: evidence for a narrow jet - E. Troja et al
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Credits: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss; <br />X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Maryland/E. Troja et al; <br />Optical: Lowell Observatory's Discovery Channel Telescope/E.Troja et al.
Credits: Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss;
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Maryland/E. Troja et al;
Optical: Lowell Observatory's Discovery Channel Telescope/E.Troja et al.
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