April 29, 2013
Categories: NASA, Russia, USA

According to RIA Novosti, Russian astronomers were the first to watch the brightest of the last five years gamma-flash.

Gamma-flashes is one of the most extraordinary and mysterious astrophysical phenomena. These are sporadic flashes of the space gamma-emission, coming from various directions of the Universe’s deeps. First time they were registered by American satellites of Vela series, aimed to record soviet ground nuclear tests. It is assumed that sources of gamma-flashes are explosions of supernovas in far galaxies.

In order to register gamma-flashes in 2004 NASA launched the Swift space observatory, which tracks almost all gamma-flashes using its BAT (Burst Alert Telescope). Yesterday at 07.47 GMT (11.47 Msc), the Swift observatory registered a flash that received a reference index GRB 130427A.

Alexey Pozanenko from Space research institute of Russian Academy of Science , Leonid Elenin from Applied mathematics institute of Russian Academy of Science and their colleagues were the first to perform the optical observation of this gamma-flash using 0.45-m automatic telescope of Russian observatory ISON-NM, located in the USA.

“Brightness of gamma-flash afterglow reached the 11th star magnitude 139 seconds after the beginning of the flash, this is the highest optical brightness since March 2008, when the flash GRB 080319B reached the magnitude of 5,7. Now the afterglow is going down but will be visible for next several tens days “, — Elenin said to RIA Novosti. According to computations of scientists, the galaxy this gamma-flash originates from is 4,37 billion light-years from the Earth.

More from this category:
June 24, 2013

According to RIA Novosti, Russia scaled back its ambition to send the Sochi 2014 Olympic flame into space on Monday but promised the next best…

full story
April 17, 2014

Egyptian EgyptSat-2 (previously named MisrSat-2, E-Star) Earth remote sensing satellite launched from Baikonur spaceport with the help of Soyuz-U separated from the booster. The launch…

full story
June 9, 2021

Roscosmos cosmonauts and the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center representatives are completing their visit to Baikonur, the main purpose of which was to study the Nauka…

full story
August 10, 2015

Interdepartmental Commission approved main and back-up crews of new ISS mission for the flight, – GCTC spokesman reported. The main crew comprises: Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey…

full story
December 5, 2014

At the present time aerospace tourism becomes more and more popular. People need new emotions and impressions, they look for unusual solutions. We are lucky…

full story
June 19, 2024

“Roscosmos” reports that the “Progress MS-29” cargo ship has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome The Progress MS-29 cargo ship has arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome….

full story
July 30, 2019

On July 29, 2019, the “Progress MS-11” cargo spaceship undocked from the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). The on-board computer gave the…

full story
July 26, 2013

RIA Novosti – Fragments of Russia’s Progress M-18M space freighter sunk safely in the Pacific Ocean after re-entering the atmosphere on Friday, a spokesman for…

full story