Contact: Barbara K. Kennedy
science@psu.edu
814-863-4682
Penn State

Host Galaxy and Fading Afterglow

Caption: Hubble Space Telescope images of the host galaxy and fading afterglow of the "hybrid gamma-ray burst" GRB 060614, which occurred on June 14, 2006. One image was taken in each of two colors, on June 27 and July 15, 2006. The difference between these images shows a fading source, the afterglow of the burst. A brightening supernova would have been seen as a bright source, centered in the small circles on the July 15 images. The absence of any such source is what demonstrates that GRB 060614 was a hybrid burst - a long burst without a supernova. Since all other long-duration bursts observed with Hubble have shown supernovae, this result has surprised astronomers, suggesting that they may be seeing a new type of black hole explosion.

Credit: A. Gal-Yam, Caltech

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