Nov 3 2000
From The Space Library
Space News for this day. (1MB PDF)
NASA announced that the Chandra X-ray Observatory had detected iron-emission lines in the afterglow of a gamma-ray burst (GRB), marking the first time such lines had been "unambiguously detected" in association with GRBs, and the first time scientists had been able to measure their properties precisely in x-ray wavelengths. Luigi Piro, lead author of a paper published in the 3 November issue of the journal Science, explained that the discovery provided an important clue to understanding the origins of the bursts. The new data enabled scientists to rule out the theory that two neutron stars or black holes collide to cause a GRB, one of various theories about how the bursts originate. Instead, Piro suggested that the bursts were more likely the result of "something similar to a supernova explosion, but much more powerful."
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