A short γ-ray burst apparently associated with an elliptical galaxy at redshift z = 0.225

  • N. Gehrels
  • , C. L. Sarazin
  • , P. T. O'Brien
  • , B. Zhang
  • , L. Barbier
  • , S. D. Barthelmy
  • , A. Blustin
  • , D. N. Burrows
  • , J. Cannizzo
  • , J. R. Cummings
  • , M. Goad
  • , S. T. Holland
  • , C. P. Hurkett
  • , J. A. Kennea
  • , A. Levan
  • , C. B. Markwardt
  • , K. O. Mason
  • , P. Meszaros
  • , M. Page
  • , D. M. Palmer
  • E. Rol, T. Sakamoto, R. Willingale, L. Angelini, A. Beardmore, P. T. Boyd, A. Breeveld, S. Campana, M. M. Chester, G. Chincarini, L. R. Cominsky, G. Cusumano, M. De Pasquale, E. E. Fenimore, P. Giommi, C. Gronwall, D. Grupe, J. E. Hill, D. Hinshaw, J. Hjorth, D. Hullinger, K. C. Hurley, S. Klose, S. Kobayashi, C. Kouveliotou, H. A. Krimm, V. Mangano, F. E. Marshall, K. McGowan, A. Moretti, R. F. Mushotzky, K. Nakazawa, J. P. Norris, J. A. Nousek, J. P. Osborne, K. Page, A. M. Parsons, S. Patel, M. Perri, T. Poole, P. Romano, P. W.A. Roming, S. Rosen, G. Sato, P. Schady, A. P. Smale, J. Sollerman, R. Starling, M. Still, M. Suzuki, G. Tagliaferri, T. Takahashi, M. Tashiro, J. Tueller, A. A. Wells, N. E. White, R. A.M.J. Wijers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

519 Scopus citations

Abstract

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) come in two classes1: long (>2 s), soft-spectrum bursts and short, hard events. Most progress has been made on understanding the long GRBs, which are typically observed at high redshift (z ≈ 1) and found in subluminous star-forming host galaxies. They are likely to be produced in core-collapse explosions of massive stars2. In contrast, no short GRB had been accurately (<10″) and rapidly (minutes) located. Here we report the detection of the X-ray afterglow from-and the localization of-the short burst GRB 050509B. Its position on the sky is near a luminous, non-star-forming elliptical galaxy at a redshift of 0.225, which is the location one would expect3,4 if the origin of this GRB is through the merger of neutron-star or black-hole binaries. The X-ray afterglow was weak and faded below the detection limit within a few hours; no optical afterglow was detected to stringent limits, explaining the past difficulty in localizing short GRBs.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)851-854
Number of pages4
JournalNature
Volume437
Issue number7060
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 6 2005

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General

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