.: Welcome to our site

Welcome to the website for the Physics 111 project of Group 14. The members of our group included: Kyle Brown, Kristina Gordin, Jimmy Kinney, Bob Marlowe, John Popson, and Lisa Richardson.

.: Gamma-ray bursts in Physics 111

Gamma-ray bursts are present in a small section of chapter 13 of our text for class. We didn't discuss them in depth, but we were shown a film on them. This film highlighted many early trains of thought and also hinted at the danger that could come from a nearby gamma-ray burst explosion.

.: Current News in the World of Gamma-Ray Bursts

Gamma-Ray Burst Visible to Naked Eye

Scientists have recently found a gamma ray burst that was visible to the naked eye. The amazing part of this discovery, is that the burst was over 7.5 light-years from Earth and was still able to be seen without help from a scientific tool. Some photographs that were taken with an x-ray telescope (on the right) and an optical/ultraviolet telescope(on the left) are shown below.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/03/080321-brightest-object.html

Brightest Gamma-Ray Burst Packed a One-Two Punch

A recent gamma ray burst (GRB 080319), visible to the naked eye, broke tradition by being two separate bursts of light rather than one. The explosion of GRB 080319B was on record as the brightest explosion that was ever noted. Soon after recording the first burst, scientists noticed that the pulses peaked again, somewhere around eleven days later. This burst is shown in a digital animation here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4GixGuXO_g&feature=related

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=brightest-gamma-ray-burst-one-two

WR 104: A nearby gamma-ray burst?

In this article, the author talks about a binary star located around 8,000 light-years away. This binary star is within range to be of someconcern to our world. If certain things fall into place, such as position and objects in between the star and our planet, then the gamma-ray burst produced may be large enough to cause a mass extinction on our planet.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/03/03/wr-104-a-nearby-gamma-ray-burst/

Astronomers Discover a Supernova/Gamma Ray Burst Hybrid

This article talks about a recent explosion that was found in space. At first, scientists believed it to be a supernova, due to its long bursts of x-ray emissions. Later, some proposed that it may be a low powered gamma-ray burst. Ultimately, the scientists seem to think that it s a sort of hybrid between a supernova and a gamma-ray burst.

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/07/25/astronomers-discover-a-supernovagamma-ray-burst-hybrid/