GRB 060614 was a
gamma-ray burst
In gamma-ray astronomy, gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies. They are the most energetic and luminous electromagnetic events since the Big Bang. Bursts can last from ten millise ...
detected by the
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory
Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, previously called the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Explorer, is a NASA three-telescope space observatory for studying gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and monitoring the afterglow in X-ray, and UV/Visible light at the location o ...
on June 14, 2006, with peculiar properties. It challenged a previously held
scientific consensus on
gamma-ray burst progenitors
Gamma-ray burst progenitors are the types of celestial objects that can emit gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBs show an extraordinary degree of diversity. They can last anywhere from a fraction of a second to many minutes. Bursts could have a single p ...
and
black holes.
Prior to this detection, it was believed that a long gamma-ray burst, like GRB 060614, was probably caused by
gravitational collapse of a large star into a black hole, and would be accompanied by detectable
supernova, whilst short gamma-ray bursts were thought to be the
merger of two neutron stars
A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. white ...
. However, the lack of any supernova and the vanishing spectral lags during GRB 060614 are typical of short GRBs, at odds with the long (102s) duration of this event and its origin in a galaxy 1.6 billion
light years away in the
constellation Indus.
In December 2006, an article on the burst was published in the journal
''Nature'', with the editors describing a hunt by scientists to define a new GRB classification system to account for this burst. GRB 060614 was subsequently classified as a "hybrid gamma-ray burst", defined as a long burst without accompanying supernova.
References
External links
NASA Satellite Discovers New Kind of Black Hole ExplosionGRB 060614entry at
SIMBAD
SIMBAD (the Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data) is an astronomical database of objects beyond the Solar System. It is maintained by the Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS), France.
SIMBA ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:GRB 060614
20060614
Indus (constellation)
June 2006 events
060614