OBSERVATIONS OF THE NAKED-EYE GRB 080319B: IMPLICATIONS OF NATURE'S BRIGHTEST EXPLOSION

By Joshua S. Bloom, D. Perley, W. Li, N. Butler, A. Miller, D. Kocevski, D. A. Kann, R. Foley, H. Chen, A. Filippenko and 21 more. 2008

155 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The first gamma-ray burst (GRB) confirmed to be bright enough to be seen with the naked eye, GRB 080319B at redshift z = 0.937, allowed for exquisite follow-up observations across the electromagnetic spectrum. We present our detailed optical and infrared (IR) observations of the afterglow, consisting of over 5000 images starting 51 s after the GRB trigger, in concert with our own analysis of the Swift UVOT, Burst Alert Telescope (BAT), and XRT data. The event is extreme not only in observed properties but also intrinsically: it was the most luminous event ever recorded at optical and IR wavelengths and had an exceedingly high isotropic-equivalent energy release in γ-rays. At early times, the afterglow evolution is broadly consistent with being reverse-shock dominated, but then is subsumed by a forward shock at around 1000 s. The overall spectral energy distribution, spanning from ultraviolet through near-IR wavelengths, shows no evidence for a significant amount of dust extinction in the host frame. The afterglow evolution, however, is highly chromatic: starting at about 1000 s the index shifts blueward before shifting back to the red at late times. In our deepest late-time observations, we find tentative evidence for an optical jet break and a luminous supernova. Finally, we examine the detectability of such events with current and future facilities and find that such an event could be detected in gamma rays by BAT out to z = 10.7 (8σ), while the nominal EXIST sensitivity would allow detection to z ≈ 32. At the K band, this source would have been easily detected with meter-class telescopes to z ≈ 17.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/61f5189138fdf14c346a520fab38d3a73edf4b86

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The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. Bing Zhang
2. E. Berger
3. B. Metzger
4. E. Quataert
5. T. Thompson
6. P. Hopkins
7. W. Fong
8. E. Ramirez-Ruiz

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. A. Gal-yam
2. Ryan Chornock
3. T. Thompson
4. A. Filippenko
5. S. Cenko
6. J. Rhoads
7. J. Hjorth
8. J. Sollerman

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. B. Metzger
2. E. Quataert
3. E. Berger
4. T. Thompson
5. N. Bucciantini
6. A. Gal-yam
7. Bing Zhang
8. Ryan Chornock

Citations in the corpus

• THE HOST GALAXIES OF SWIFT DARK GAMMA-RAY BURSTS: OBSERVATIONAL CONSTRAINTS ON HIGHLY OBSCURED AND VERY HIGH REDSHIFT GRBs (2009, background): “While we now know that GRBs are frequently accompanied by extremely luminous afterglows (sometimes spectacularly so: e.g., Akerlof et al. 1999; Bloom et al. 2009; Racusin et al. 2008) an optical detection is reported in only about half of cases since the launch of Swift 14.”
• LOW-RESOLUTION SPECTROSCOPY OF GAMMA-RAY BURST OPTICAL AFTERGLOWS: BIASES IN THE SWIFT SAMPLE AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE ABSORBERS (2009, background): “GRB080319B (z = 0.9382)This is the famous naked eye burst (Ra usin et al. 2008; Wo¹niak et al. 2009; Bloom et al.2009).”
• The Proto-Magnetar Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts (2010, background): “Many extremely energetic GRBs, such as GRB 990123 (e.g. Kulkarni et al. 1999) and 080319B (Bloom et al. 2009), are also distinguished by bright optical emission coincident with the GRB.”
• Gamma-Ray Bursts in the Swift Era (2009, background): “Swift detection of the “naked eye burst” GRB 080319B, which peaked at visual magnitude V = 5.3 has now delivered the richest dataset, by far, addressing the prompt optical emission and its evolution into a standard fading afterglow (Racusin et al. 2008a, Bloom et al. 2009, Woźniak et al. 2008).”
• A PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFT OF z ∼ 9.4 FOR GRB 090429B (2011, background): “Most notably, they have unprecedented luminosity, both of the prompt emission, and afterglow (e.g., Racusin et al. 2008; Bloom et al. 2009), enabling them to provide detailed diagnostics of their environments, and pinpointing their host galaxies however faint.”
• A NEW POPULATION OF ULTRA-LONG DURATION GAMMA-RAY BURSTS (2013, background): “These energies are relatively common for Swift GRBs, lying somewhat below the most extreme Eiso cases that have been observed (e.g., Racusin et al. 2008, 2009; Bloom et al. 2009; Tanvir et al. 2010).”
• THE AFTERGLOW OF GRB 130427A FROM 1 TO 1016 GHz (2013, background): “…Akerlof et al. 1999; Kulkarni et al. 1999; Kobayashi & Zhang 2003b; Li et al. 2003; Wei 2003; Shao & Dai 2005; Perley et al. 2008b; Gomboc et al. 2008; Racusin et al. 2008; Bloom et al. 2009; Pandey et al. 2010; Gruber et al. 2011; Cucchiara et al. 2011; Zheng et al. 2012; Gendre et al. 2012).”