First Observations Made of a Supernova Burst
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Astronomers have for the first time caught a supernova in the act of exploding, according to four papers this week in the journal Nature. NASA’s Swift satellite first observed a gamma-ray burst Feb. 18 about 400 million light-years away toward the constellation Aries, and researchers began monitoring from observatories around the world.
An initial burst of high-energy X-rays pierced the doomed star from its core before the massive star blew apart. A few days later, it had become a supernova called 2006aj.
